Chicago Blackhawks fall flat in loss to Stars

A playoff spot has rarely, if ever, been in doubt for the Chicago Blackhawks this season.

But a run of mediocre — and at times abysmal — play is making a fourth-place finish in the Central Division a distinct possibility. That's why Tuesday night's game against the first-place Dallas Stars at the United Center was so huge.

“We know the importance of the game,” coach Joel Quenneville said beforehand.

They sure could have fooled the 22,034 on hand as the Stars exploded to a 4-0 first-period lead en route to a 6-2 victory.

Colton Sceviour and Vernon Fiddler scored 25 seconds apart at 11:34 and 11:59, Patrick Eaves made it 3-0 at 16:01 and Fiddler scored short-handed at 18:43. If that wasn't bad enough, the Stars had plenty of other chances in the first 20 minutes that they either misfired on or Scott Darling actually stopped.

“It was hard to watch,” Quenneville said.

Michael Leighton replaced Darling for the final 40 minutes, but Quenneville wasn't blaming his starting goaltender.

“I thought Darls played two real good games coming into today,” Quenneville said. “We need to be better in front of him.”

That's for sure as Dallas' first-period goals came in almost every manner imaginable.

• Sceviour scored when his wraparound attempt bounced off Darling's stick and into the net.

• Then, from behind the Hawks' goal, Sceviour flipped the puck back to Fiddler, who easily beat an unaware Darling.

• The third goal came after Jamie Benn stickhandled around Brent Seabrook, then fed Eaves from behind the net for a one-timer that whizzed past Darling.

• Then Dallas made it 4-0 with the Hawks on the power play when a puck that was fired around the boards by Artem Anisimov eluded Patrick Kane at the blue line. Fiddler raced past Kane and beat Darling with a neat backhander for his second goal in less than seven minutes.

Kane, who has 1 goal and 2 assists the last seven games, took the blame for that goal and said he needs to pick up his game.

“I'll take it upon myself to be a lot better and make sure when I'm on the ice we have the puck and not giving up goals,” he said. “That's something I'll be concentrating on when we resume play in three days here.”

Andrew Shaw scored at 16:23 of the second period to give the Hawks some life, but Radek Faksa restored the Stars' 4-goal lead just 2:35 later.

The Hawks (42-25-7) are 6 points behind the Stars and only 4 in front of the Predators. Falling behind Nashville would mean the Hawks could face the Los Angeles Kings in what would figure to be a brutal first-round matchup.

“We'll retain that confidence deep down that we're a good team,” Jonathan Toews said. “We know what we're capable of this year, and once we get to the postseason we'll remind ourselves of that and look at the big picture and try and take it shift by shift and get out of this little funk we're in.”

Dallas clinched a playoff spot with the victory and went 4-1 against the Hawks this season.

“They've taken it to us for a few years,” Fiddler said. “It's obviously nice to be on the other side, but that doesn't give us a Stanley Cup in our dressing room. When playoff time comes, we know they're going to be a better team.”

The Hawks will have three days to lick their wounds before beginning a four-game road trip with stops in Calgary, Vancouver, Minnesota and Winnipeg.