Listless Hawks lose fifth straight

The Blackhawks are in full free fall.

Mostly listless once more against a team below them in the standings, the Hawks’ losing streak reached five games Friday night with a 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome.

The Hawks now dropped seven road games in a row, and they’re only three stops into their nine-game road trip that has started the worst way possible.

“We’ll find a way out of it and things will start looking better for us soon,” Jonathan Toews told reporters.

“Stretches like this get your attention and you learn from,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We haven’t really had a challenge like this all year.”

The Hawks were better defensively, although that wasn’t difficult after surrendering 8 goals in Thursday’s loss at Edmonton, but the offense was without much zip and penalties took their toll.

The worst was a four-minute high sticking penalty against Michael Frolik in the second period that resulted in a goal by Jay Bouwmeester that snapped a 1-1 tie.

The only goal the Hawks scored came from defenseman Brent Seabrook.

Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff made 26 saves and won his dual with Ray Emery, who at least gave the Hawks an opportunity to win.

“Ray, I thought, played real good,” Quenneville said.

The Hawks put the Flames on the power play five times, pushing the momentum Calgary’s way through the last 40 minutes.

“We had to play a tighter game,” Quenneville said. “There were some good steps; some good things happened, but having to play catch up is not easy.”

The Hawks were chasing after Olli Jokinen’s goal opened the scoring.

The Hawks played without Andrew Brunette, who Quenneville hinted could be out a while with an upper body injury suffered Thursday against Edmonton.

“We’ll get a better assessment over time,” Quenneville told reporters. “Clearly we don’t have a time frame on it.”

Frolik, a healthy scratch at Edmonton, took Brunette’s spot in the lineup.