Late goal makes for a tough Hawks loss

The Blackhawks' record looks worse than it is, at least to coach Joel Quenneville.

The defending Stanley Cup champs fell to 1-2-1 after their first four games Wednesday night with a tough 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators at the United Center.

A delay-of-game penalty to defenseman Nick Boynton for flipping the puck in the stands with 2:13 to play in regulation led to Joel Ward's power-play goal with 27 seconds left on the clock.

Hawks goalie Corey Crawford, who was making his second straight start, had no chance on Wards's goal, set up nicely by J.P. Dumont.

“It just rolled on me just as I was going to shoot it, Boynton said of his costly penalty. “It happens. It's happened before and it'll happen again.

“It's an unfortunate penalty, but we've got to be better. We shouldn't have been in that position anyway.

The Hawks' 3 losses all have been by 1 goal. They lost in overtime at Colorado, 3-2 to the Red Wings on a broken play in the third period and now in the final minute to the Predators.

“The way it ended was a disappointing loss, not coming out of it with at least 1 (point), Quenneville said after Wednesday's defeat. “We should have had something in every game we've played this year. Tonight was the toughest one we had to deal with.

The Hawks were outshot 10-4 in the third period on a night the offense had little going outside of goals from Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews that had them ahead 2-1.

The Hawks have just 7 goals in their 3 losses.

“We've got to be better in certain areas, Quenneville said. “If you look back, three games in a row we could have prevented 1 goal in each of the games, and I think that's a good place to start.

“Offensively, there's enough offense here, but there's more commitment (needed) without the puck here defensively, which will enhance our offense.

Kane scored on a power play at 4:48 of the first period, beating Predators rookie goalie Anders Lindback with a wicked wrist shot from inside the right circle.

Lindback got the start, his first in the NHL, because No. 1 goalie Pekka Rinne is out with a lower-body injury. Lindback wasn't tested as much as Quenneville would have liked.

“We didn't get enough shots, Quenneville said. “We were missing shots high and wide and they got out of their zone cleanly because we didn't hit the net.

Toews' goal late in the first period made it 2-1, but the Predators got the tying goal from Colin Wilson early in the third on a shot that deflected off defenseman Jordan Hendry and past Crawford.

“They played good, but I think we beat ourselves, Hawks winger Tomas Kopecky said. “We stopped playing after the first period and every team is going to take advantage of you when you stop playing.

“I wouldn't say we stopped, we just kind of took it easy. We've got a really good team right here, right now, and we believe in ourselves. We know when we play good and when we play average.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

Predators 3, Blackhawks 2

Three stars: 1. Joel Ward, Predators: Game-winning goal on a power play with 27 seconds to play.

2. Shea Weber, Predators: Played almost 27 minutes on defense and had 5 hits.

3. Duncan Keith, Hawks: On the ice for a whopping 32:52 and finished plus-1 with 2 hits and 2 blocked shots.

Juggling act: With Niklas Hjalmarsson serving the first game of his two-game suspension, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville tried a lot of different combinations on defense, splitting up Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook for much of the night.

Where's the beef? The Hawks were credited with only 13 hits, just 8 coming from forwards.