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Kane logs big minutes in Chicago Blackhawks' loss to Lightning

It's not often that hockey coaches dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, but the Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning both went with that unorthodox formula when they squared off Thursday night at the United Center.

Tampa Bay did so out of necessity, having lost Nikita Kucherov to an upper-body injury Tuesday at St. Louis.

The Hawks, on the other hand, did so voluntarily by inserting Slater Koekkoek for the healthy Dominik Kubalik.

The move did not pay off for Colliton, however, as the Hawks fell 4-2.

Using seven D-men is a strategy that's rarely used because it's difficult for defensemen to get into a rhythm and it forces the forward lines to be in a constant state of flux.

Colliton gave it a try, however, because he wanted to play Koekkoek against his former team, and he also wanted to reward Patrick Kane for his stellar play of late.

"I think it was the right thing to do," Colliton said of inserting Koekkoek, who was a first-round pick of the Lightning in 2012. "And Kaner's playing really well - an opportunity to use him a little bit more.

"Ultimately don't think we had enough guys going up front."

Kane certainly was, in large part because he logged a whopping 27 minutes and 52 seconds of ice time. He fired 7 pucks on net in the first two periods alone, but none of them found their way past goalie Curtis McElhinney, and Tampa Bay snapped a 1-1 tie with third-period goals by Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Point.

"I feel like the more the play, the more you get into the game," Kane said. "There were some chances I had I probably could have capitalized on. It's always nice to play as much as possible. Would have been nice to do a little bit more with it."

Brent Seabrook knotted the score at 1-1 with 11:33 remaining, but Cirelli restored the Lightning's lead just 77 seconds later by tipping in a Victor Hedman blast. Point then made it 3-1 with 7:37 remaining.

Dylan Strome gave the Hawks (9-9-4) life by sliding in a rebound with 2:43 left, but Cedric Paquette put the game away with an empty netter with 59.2 seconds on the clock.

Kane assisted on Strome's goal, extending his point streak to 11 games.

Tampa Bay (10-7-2) was without superstar winger Steven Stamkos for the final two periods. Stamkos aggravated a lower-body injury, then "sat on the bench too long in the second," according to coach Jon Cooper. "We gave (him) the option to leave the game, but he didn't want to do it. He wanted to hang out with his teammates and cheer them on."

Cooper did not have a further update on Stamkos.

As for the Hawks, Jonathan Toews wasn't at all displeased with his team's effort, but the captain does want his fellow forwards to start wreaking more havoc in front of opposing goalies.

"We can maybe do a better job of getting pucks through and finding ways to get those second efforts … kind of like Stromer's goal at the end," Toews said. "If we just throw pucks in at his pads, we're not really doing a good enough job for our D-men as forwards by getting to the net and getting in the goalies' eyes."

The Hawks now begin an important five-game stretch against Central Division opponents. They'll face Dallas back-to-back Saturday and Tuesday; Colorado back-to-back Nov. 29 and 30; and host St. Louis on Dec. 2. After that, they'll play five of six on the road.

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