Road trip comes to disappointing end for Hawks
LOS ANGELES - What was a great road trip a week ago ended in disappointment for the Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon.
The Hawks fell apart in the third period of their 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center, making it 3 straight defeats to close their six-game road trip at 3-2-1.
"It's disappointing the way we concluded it," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I'm not happy with this ending. That was the worst we've been."
The Hawks had a 2-1 lead late in the second period then stopped playing.
"We started taking guys on 1-on-1 and turned the puck over a couple times in the middle of the ice," Quenneville said. "I thought we had perfect control of the game and didn't advance it. You've got to be responsible start to finish in road games."
It came down to one period for the Hawks to make it a memorable trip. They were tied with the Kings 2-2 after the second and only 20 minutes away from a potential fourth victory.
After Derek Armstrong's goal on another Cristobal Huet rebound at 6:16 made it 3-2, the Hawks looked miserable on a power play moments later.
Then came a Hawks penalty for too many men on the ice and a resulting power-play goal from Kyle Calder.
Game over.
"We didn't play well at all," Brent Seabrook said. "We were right there in the third period and stopped doing all the little things.
"We had a great start to the trip, but it's how you finish it and we let them off the hook. Good teams will find a way to bury teams and tonight we didn't."
If the Hawks took the Kings lightly, as captain Jonathan Toews suggested, that was their first mistake. The victory made the Kings 10-9-3 and left them only 3 points behind the Hawks.
"I think in a way we underestimated that team today," said Toews, who was minus-3. "We thought it was going to be an easy game, but it definitely wasn't. After we had that lead we didn't work hard enough to keep it.
"They were tougher defensively than the team we saw last year. They made it tough to get to the net and get scoring chances and we didn't work hard enough to create them."
After scoring 14 goals in the first three games of the trip, the Hawks got only 4 in their losses to San Jose, Anaheim and the Kings.
Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp scored goals Saturday, giving them 4 each on the trip. But Martin Havlat finished the six games with 1 goal and 1 assist. Ben Eager had more goals (2) than Havlat.
Dave Bolland had 1 goal on the trip, Andrew Ladd and Troy Brouwer none. Dustin Byfuglien played in three games and had no points.
"I guess we can be satisfied with (a 3-2-1 trip), but it's hard to put a happy face on after a game like that," Sharp said. "It's a tough trip every year. The main thing is to put this one behind us and get ready to go home."