Penalty problems sink Hawks

Without the injured Martin Havlat, their gamebreaker and best offensive player who is out for at least the next month, the Blackhawks will need to do the little things to keep their head above water.Like stay out of the penalty box.They couldn't do it Wednesday night and the result was a 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks at the United Center.A disappointing crowd of just 10,122 saw the Sharks score 2 power-play goals. Milan Michalek got them both, his second coming with 3:31 to play and Tuomo Ruutu in the penalty box for hooking.The Hawks took 6 hooking penalties against the bigger and faster Sharks, and 2 more for high-sticking."We know they have a great power play, and if you're going to take 7 or 8 penalties against them, you know they're going to get a goal or two, and that's what happened," said Hawks coach Denis Savard.The Hawks were outshot 32-17 with rookie center Jonathan Toews accounting for the only goal in his NHL debut.Toews scored at 13:43 of the first period to make it 1-0, but after that it was all Sharks."We can't allow them 7 or 8 power plays a game, (but) at the same time we didn't work to draw any penalties," Savard said. "We just didn't move our feet, and by that we were playing in our own end most of the night."Habby kept us in the game the whole game, really, it's as simple as that."That would be goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who was excellent in defeat. Both goals by Michalek were from in tight, the winner on a re-direction."I don't think we played that well tonight," Khabibulin said. "They seemed to be faster and quicker to the loose pucks."Ruutu's penalty came at the end of a long shift and occurred where coaches hate it the most -- in the attack zone."It's just not that penalty," Savard said. "We took about 5 or 6 of them before that too."Toews had 2 stick penalties and was in the box for hooking in the second period when Michalek scored his first goal."A couple of bad stick penalties on my part," Toews said. "That's learning the hard way, I guess. I hurt my team by doing that tonight. Hopefully I can make up for it."Toews and 18-year-old linemate Patrick Kane combined for 5 of the Hawks' 17 shots."Our kids, again, were our best players out there," Savard said.The first line of Robert Lang, Sergei Samsonov and Patrick Sharp accounted for only 2 shots on goal, both by Samsonov.Toews didn't waste much time making his presence felt.His goal was a thing of beauty -- a wrist shot from between the circles over the glove of goalie Evgeni Nabobov and under the crossbar. But it was what Toews did to free himself that demonstrated the kind of talent he possesses.Toews chipped a pass from Brent Seabrook over the stick of defenseman Matthew Carle, then shook free of a hook by Carle, who was going to get a penalty."It was a great moment, one I'll remember forever, but the bigger picture was the game tonight," Toews said.