Blackhawks don't have an answer for Stars

Stop Joel Quenneville if you've heard this one before.

"It was almost a carbon copy of what we saw last game," the Blackhawks coach said. "Tight hockey game, we take a penalty, they score off the rush and then they score quickly after that. They played the night before, too ... it was exactly what happened last game."

And just like in their game against Winnipeg, the Hawks, despite rallying twice to tie things up Sunday, didn't have an answer late, this time falling 6-3 to Dallas at the United Center. The loss was the Hawks' third in their last four games and they are 3-5 in 2015.

"It's good that we can bounce back in games and catch up like that, but at the same time we shouldn't put ourselves in that position to begin with," said Brandon Saad, who accounted for 2 of the Hawks goals Sunday.

And it's the way that they've played while dropping six of their last 11 games that's a little unnerving.

"We didn't commit ourselves to playing the right type of game," captain Jonathan Toews said. "We played hard and played well at times where we sustained the pressure, but then we had lapses where we were giving up 2-on-1s."

Even though the Hawks came out with guns blazing early, by the time the midway point of the first period hit, the Stars were already up 2-0 courtesy of goals by Tyler Seguin and Cody Eakin.

Patrick Kane cut the lead in half at the 12:22 mark and Saad tied things up in the final minutes with his 14th of the season.

Saad added No. 15 in the second to make it 3-3 heading into the final 20 minutes, but goals by Eakin, Erik Cole and a late empty-netter proved too much to overcome.

Time to start worrying?

Depends whom you ask.

"I think it's already a concern," said Saad. "The past two games are games we could've won. Two divisional opponents - those are big games and tough losses."

For Toews, it's not quite time to hit the panic button.

"You're going to have some tough moments throughout the season and we're not going to overreact and make a huge deal and panic about anything," he said. "Just the same way we don't get overconfident when things are going our way.

"We always realize that it comes down to our work ethic, and the last few games we haven't had that."

• Follow Mike on Twitter at @dhspellman.