Hawks fall again, 3-2 to Canadiens

It's not very often a team receives 8 power-play opportunities in one game.

Or 5 in one period.

And loses.

But that's exactly what happened to the reeling Blackhawks against Montreal on Sunday.

"The key to our 2 points tonight was Carey Price," said former Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw after the Canadiens' 3-2 victory at the United Center. "He was absolutely outstanding. … Hats off to our 'D', our killers and obviously our goalie."

Price made 37 saves - 14 of which came while the Hawks enjoyed 14 minutes, 58 seconds of power-play time - and Montreal won for the fourth time in five games when Tomas Tatar tipped in Jeff Petry's shot with just 1:17 remaining.

The Hawks, who allowed their opponent to score the first goal for a 10th straight time, dropped their seventh straight and are now 9-17-5 overall and 3-11-2 under coach Jeremy Colliton.

"We just couldn't finish," Colliton said. "Unfortunate to give up the goal at the end. That really, really gives it a negative tinge."

Patrick Kane scored both of the Hawks' goals - the first coming on the power play with 59 seconds left in the first period.

"They did a good job of blocking shots and we couldn't find a way to capitalize," Kane said. "Kind of the same old story: get behind and play ourselves back into the game; and find a way to lose it late. So, another tough loss."

Montreal took a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Max Domi at 6:05 and Shea Weber at 7:36.

Kane's tallies evened the game and the Hawks were then handed 5 power-play opportunities in the third period. Three of those chances came consecutively as Tatar was whistled for cross-checking at 1:58, and Jordie Benn got called for a double minor after high-sticking Dylan Strome at 3:58.

Yet, they all went for naught. Montreal blocked 20 shots - 9 of them off the stick of Brent Seabrook.

The five players on the first PP unit - Kane, Seabrook, John Hayden, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat - all saw about 10 minutes each of man-advantage time.

"I don't know if we could've done much more, to be honest with you," said Kane, who now has 15 goals on the season. "We moved it around well, we had good motion, we had good shots. … Could've been a bounce either way."

The bounce that went Montreal's way came just after Petry let a laser fly from just inside the blue line. After the puck sailed past Strome, Tatar - who had inside position on Connor Murphy - redirected it past Corey Crawford for his 12th goal of the season.

"We've got to bear down and either block a shot or make a right read or make a hard play with the puck," said Murphy, who played his first game of the season and had 4 shots on goal in 16:46. "(Otherwise) you'll end up getting scored on most of the time."

Colliton was asked why forwards like Andreas Martinsen and Alexandre Fortin were on the ice when the game-winner occurred.

"You need to put someone out there," he said. "There was so much special teams (time) that some guys didn't play that much in the third. And you gotta find a way to get it done anyway."

Now it's back to work Monday before a game at Winnipeg (18-9-2) against a Jets team that defeated Philadelphia 7-1 on Sunday.

"Nobody's going to give us an easy way out of this," Colliton said, repeating a familiar theme. "We have to make our own way. That's what I'm going to bring and that's what I expect them to bring."