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Toews says team is going to keep believing in themselves

DETROIT — Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was eager to see how the team responded to its first real adversity of the season in Game 4 on Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

“We’re still a confident group in here,” Toews said. “The talk the last few days has been the adversity we’re facing. We knew this was going to be a tough series against Detroit so we’re not running into anything we didn’t expect.”

The Hawks were looking to bounce back from losses in Games 2 and 3. In a familiar ending, the Hawks lost 2-0 to fall behind 3-1 in the series.

“We’re not going to dwell on the losses,” Toews said. “It wasn’t the result we wanted, but we’re not sitting here being negative about it either. We know we have to take this series one game at a time and that it’s a long way from over.

“Against any team, whether you’re up three games to whatever, the fourth one is always the toughest to win. We’ve got to let it all out now.”

The Hawks have had things basically go their way from the season opener in Los Angeles, when they started their record points streak of 24 games to start the year.

“Obviously, all year we seemed to go one game at a time and kind of maintained a sense of consistency almost where nothing seemed to disrupt that,” Toews said. “We had a lot of momentum going through the regular season and this seems to be the first time we’re running into some tough adversity.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s something you have to embrace come playoff time. You don’t win a Stanley Cup without going through something like that so we have to welcome it and whatever they throw at us we’ve got to smile and throw it right back in their face. That’s what playoff hockey is all about.”

The Red Wings almost seem to be gaining confidence as the playoffs roll along.

“We’re going to keep believing in ourselves,” Toews said. “There’s a reason we’ve made it this far. We’re a good team, a really good team. We’ve got a lot players with some great ability in this locker room and you put it all together, if we play the right way, we’re an amazing bunch of guys.

“There’s not any panic in here. We’re going to go out and play like we can.”

Toews still is looking for his first goal of the playoffs.

“If there are a few bounces that aren’t going your way you can’t just chalk it up to puck luck and say too bad,” Toews said. “You’ve got to find a way to get it going your way. The harder you work, the more bounces you’re going to get going your way.”

Toews took three straight penalties in Thursday’s loss and was in the penalty box when Jakub Kindl scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the second period.

The Hawks went 0-for-3 on their power play.

“I don’t know if we lost momentum in the game, but obviously we could have used something off it,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “Certainly it would have been nice to get one, but their penalty killers, you’ve got to commend them on the job they’ve done.”

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