Youthful mistakes cost Hawks victory

There's no question youth has served the Blackhawks well this season.

But with youth comes the kind of defensive mistakes that cost the Hawks in Thursday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Hawks squandered a 3-1 third-period lead and were fortunate to get 1 point out of the evening on Jason Williams' 6-on-4 power-play goal with 43 seconds left in regulation.

Winger Patrick Kane and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien each were minus-3. Jonathan Toews was minus-2, making him minus-5 in the last two games.

"For us the coverage, locating the third guy (on the attack), we had a tough time with that," said Hawks coach Denis Savard. "Some of our young players have got to learn what it takes, and it's not a lack of effort. They'll learn. These are growing pains for them, but we'll show them and get it fixed."

The Hawks trailed 1-0 after the first period then struck for 3 goals in the second by Toews, James Wisniewski and Patrick Sharp.

But in the third period the Hawks lost control of things for the better part of the first 18 minutes.

"Sometimes momentum can change real quickly, and for whatever reason they got the momentum there," said defenseman Duncan Keith. "We have to learn to play with the lead and learn to find ways to stop other teams when they get that momentum and slow the game down and take it to them."

The Hawks had been 5-0 when leading after two periods, but Savard has mentioned on several occasions how his team has struggled at times playing with a lead.

"We can't sit back and let teams come to us and expect to win games," Williams said. "Obviously it's very disappointing to let this victory get away."

The Hawks' effort was dramatically better than in Wednesday's 4-2 loss at Columbus, but the inability to put the game away after leading 3-1 overshadowed any positives.

"It's not the first time it's happened this year," Sharp said. "Once we get that lead I feel like we're just playing to get the puck out of our zone. We're just chipping it into the neutral zone, not moving our feet and just kind of waiting for things to happen. Against a good team like Nashville they're going to get those scoring chances."

Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was very good in spots, especially early, but ran into some tough luck as the game progressed.

Nashville's goal that made it 3-3 at 10:07 of the third period went in off Vern Fiddler's skate. Martin Erat's winner just 19 seconds into overtime went off Khabibulin's shoulder, then hit defenseman Brent Seabrook before trickling into the net, surviving a video review.

"That was more or less a bad break and a bad bounce," Keith said. "They just threw it at the net and it bounces in off a few skates and sticks and a shoulder. Kind of a tough bounce, but still we should be able to keep that puck out."