Blackhawks' losing streak hits 7
The stunning collapse of the Blackhawks continued Friday night.
Although there were some stretches when the Hawks played well at HP Pavilion, in the end it was more of the same of what we've been seeing for two weeks: poor penalties, poor special teams, poor goaltending and poor decision making.
It added up to a 5-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Hawks' seventh straight defeat and ninth in a row on the road.
After trailing 2-0, the Hawks twice battled from behind to tie the game, but on Benn Ferriero's goal in the third period that snapped a 3-3 deadlock, Corey Crawford was caught well out of the net.
An undisciplined checking to the head penalty by Andrew Shaw moments later resulted in Jamie McGinn's power-play goal, the Sharks' third of the night.
San Jose scored 2 power-play goals in the first period.
Not only are the Hawks now 11 points behind Detroit in the Central Division, they are only 6 points from being out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Michael Frolik, whose season keeps going from bad to worse, took a four-minute high sticking penalty against Joe Pavelski on his first shift and the Sharks turned it into a power-play goal from Justin Braun on a rebound past Crawford.
Dan Boyle's power-play goal on another rebound came after the Hawks ended up on the short end of a skirmish in front of the benches that started between Jonathan Toews and Joe Thornton.
When Sean O'Donnell and Duncan Keith came to help Toews against Thornton and Ryan Clowe, Keith earned the extra roughing penalty.
The Hawks had their chances with 2 power plays in the first period but generated nothing. They finished 0-for-3 and are 0-for-13 on the power play on the road trip.
The Hawks had a great second period, outshooting the Sharks 17-3. They rallied for a 2-2 tie on 2 goals by Marcus Kruger, but the Sharks got a late goal from Thornton to lead again going to the third.
The Hawks were absolutely dominating play late in the second when Viktor Stalberg made a bad decision dangling at the blue line. Stalberg made a hard pass Keith couldn't handle and the Sharks took off the other way.
Thornton's centering pass went off the stick of Hawks defenseman Dylan Olsen and into the net.
Stalberg's turnover came after he and linemates Andrew Brunette and Frolik cycled the puck beautifully for an extended period of time. Stalberg's decision to take the puck out to the blue line looking for a play proved to be a bad one.
Quenneville benched Stalberg for the rest of the game. Stalberg committed a similar turnover at the blue line at Colorado in the third period that led to the eventual winning goal by Gabriel Landeskog.
The day began just as badly for the Hawks, who sent defensemen Niklas Hjalmarsson and Steve Montador back to Chicago because of upper body injuries.
It had been thought Hjalmarsson had the flu.
Olsen was recalled from Rockford to play. Sami Lepisto also got into the lineup for the first time since Jan. 2. Brendan Morrison was scratched.