Pesky New Jersey stays hot, beats Hawks for second time in week

Go ahead and put the Blackhawks' 3-2 loss to New Jersey at the United Center on Thursday in the one that got away file.

In a game they thoroughly dominated, the Hawks just couldn't cash in on enough point-blank chances and yielded a pair of ugly second-period goals that ultimately cost them against a pesky bunch of Devils.

"I can't fault the game tonight," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. We generate zone time, shots, traffic - everything we looked for. I think we deserved a better fate."

Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 11 games when he scored a power-play goal 6:42 into the first period, and Artemi Panarin tied things up with 6:41 left in the game after the Devils had taken a 2-1 lead.

But New Jersey pulled off the ultimate escape act when Sergey Kalinin banged a shot past a lunging Corey Crawford with just 2:27 remaining and Kane in the penalty box for high sticking.

Crawford blamed himself for the goal, saying he shouldn't have gone after the loose puck, which gave Kalinin the chance to find a hole.

"I go reaching for a puck that I shouldn't be reaching for," Crawford said. "Just gotta learn from these little things that are costing us games."

Kane wasn't even sure what he did to deserve a penalty in the first place.

"They just told me to go to the box. I don't know," Kane said. "I must've gotten a stick up or something. I didn't really see. It's disappointing when you're in the box that late in the game. They capitalized on it."

New Jersey didn't register a shot on goal in the first nine minutes of the first and third periods, yet managed to get 3 pucks past Crawford on just 22 attempts.

Quenneville was clearly irritated by New Jersey's first goal, a 40-footer from Adam Henrique that somehow sailed over Crawford's right shoulder 59 seconds into the second period and tied the game at 1-1.

"I just lost it over the boards," Crawford said. "Maybe didn't follow him as much as I could have. I just lost him."

New Jersey then made it 2-1 when Kyle Palmieri took advantage of a turnover in the Hawks' offensive zone, raced the other way and banged home a rebound with 2:59 left in the second period.

The Hawks took 29 shots on goal (6 by Kane and 5 by Hossa) and had ample opportunities that all went awry.

• Marko Dano couldn't capitalize on a wide-open net with 1:54 left in the first period, hitting the crossbar.

• After a Marian Hossa blast, Trevor Daley and Artem Anisimov were unable to get to a loose puck with 14:45 left in the second.

• Schneider also made impressive stops on a Kane one-timer with about 16:30 left in the game and on a wicked shot by Daley with just under 14 minutes remaining.

"You look at Dano in the first period, he gets his stick across, hits the crossbar," Kane said. "Toews and Hoss and Shawzie had some really good shifts. … It's a little bit of puck luck too with those guys and everyone on our team.

"We all want to contribute. We all want to score goals and we all want to be a part of the offense."

Next up for Quenneville's 8-7-1 squad is game at 11-4-1 St. Louis on Saturday, then a home date against Calgary the next night. Quenneville said he expects Duncan Keith and/or Michal Rozsival to be suiting up in one, and possibly both, of those contests.

And not a moment too soon for a sixth-place Hawks team that's suddenly as close to the Central Division cellar as they are to the fourth-place Nashville Predators.