Chicago Blackhawks fall short against Stars 4-3

All season the Chicago Blackhawks have battled adversity.

From losing their coach to dealing with a pair of eight-game losing streaks to welcoming new faces into the locker room, it has been a roller-coaster of a campaign for Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Co.

Demonstrating amazing resolve, the Hawks steadied the ship and managed to reel off 10 wins in 12 games from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20.

Suddenly, coach Jeremy Colliton's team had the chance to jump into a wild-card berth with a pair of victories this weekend.

But that's not what happened.

Instead, the Hawks dropped a heartbreaker to Colorado on Friday and followed that up with a gut-wrenching 4-3 loss to Dallas Sunday at the United Center.

The Hawks (26-28-9) are 5 points behind Minnesota and 6 behind Dallas, the two wild-card leaders.

"It's that time of year where it's going to get tougher and tougher," said Jonathan Toews, who completed the Hawks' comeback from a 3-0 deficit against Dallas when he tied the game at 3-3 at 4:16 of the third period. "We've got to find ways to keep … striving toward that complete game as a team.

"We're getting close, and obviously we've got to stay with it and not let these two losses wither away at our confidence."

Sloppy, undisciplined play allowed Dallas to grab that 3-goal lead, but the Hawks fought back with goals by Chris Kunitz, Drake Caggiula and Toews.

The game turned when the Hawks were whistled for too many men on the ice at 7:25 and Duncan Keith took a tripping penalty at 8:03.

The Stars cashed in on the two-man advantage when Jason Spezza tapped in Alexander Radulov's pass to give the Stars a 4-3 lead at 8:55.

Colliton said the too-many-men penalty amounted to confusion on the bench after the Hawks enjoyed a long shift in the offensive zone. "I'm not going to point any fingers right now," he said. "We (need) to change earlier. That's it."

That wasn't it for the Hawks, though, who were awarded six minutes of power-play time in the final seven minutes and 20 seconds. After the first power play went for naught, Roman Pollak was called for a double minor when he high-sticked Drake Caggiula and drew blood.

It appeared the Hawks would tie it when Alex DeBrincat wound up and fired a perfect one-timer on net, but Stars goalie Anton Khudobin exploded across the crease and soaked up the blast with 35.4 seconds remaining. Khudobin turned away 44 shots.

"He made a lot of big saves," Caggiula said. "A lot of them were pretty high-quality chances."

Said Toews of blowing the four minutes of power-play time on Pollak's penalty: "Unfortunately couldn't get any draws going to kind of save our energy and wear them down, keep them in their own end. Still creating chances, just couldn't find the back of the net.

"Yeah, tough one. Big opportunities there to try and at least even the game up, if not take over in the third. (Stinks) that we let that one slip."

Now the key is to not let the season slip away during a three-game road trip to Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.

"We would've liked the standings to look different coming out of the weekend, but it's probably not as ugly as it looked a month ago," Colliton said. "Just got to have a good road trip, get some points. There's lots of points available.

"Nobody's going to win every game. If we win more than our fair share, we'll get in."