Chicago Blackhawks can't catch any breaks in loss
The Chicago Blackhawks' ears will surely be ringing for days to come after what happened Thursday night in Dallas.
Not one, not two, not three, but four players drew iron in the first 29 minutes, and it came back to haunt the Hawks in a big way during their 4-0 loss to the Stars.
Dallas took advantage of the Hawks' misfires and beat coach Joel Quenneville's team for the third time this season. Tyler Seguin notched his 15th and 16th goals, Jamie Benn and Antoine Russel also scored, and Ben Bishop made 24 saves as Dallas snapped the Blackhawks' five-game winning streak.
This game could have been a totally different story if first-period shots by Alex DeBrincat (at 6:13) and Patrick Kane (at 11:44) found their mark instead of clanking off the right post. Kane's miss was particularly painful as he was trying to bang in a rebound from just a few feet away.
"We had a couple of really good looks in the first period," Quenneville told reporters. "Those two looks that hit posts could have put us in a better spot. But we really lost a lot of gas when they did score."
That happened at 17:11 of the first period when Benn ripped home his 15th of the season just three seconds after a Tommy Wingels tripping penalty expired.
Rousell made it 2-0 at 1:07 of the second period. Two minutes later, Brent Seabrook - who hasn't scored since the season opener - nearly cut the lead in half, but his wrist shot hit the right post from about 25 feet out.
After that, the Hawks had precious few opportunities - although Nick Schmaltz became the fourth Hawk to hit a post midway through the second - and they seemed to lose their will to compete with an awfully physical Dallas team.
"Being off for a couple of days it looked like we were a little bit out of sorts as the game went on," Quenneville game. "We had played probably two of our most complete games all year (against Winnipeg and Minnesota). Tonight, we trended in the wrong direction."
Former Hawk Stephen Johns led an inspired Stars squad with 7 of his team's 24 hits. Two of them came seconds apart on Richard Panik and Hartman in the first period.
Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock joined Quenneville and Scotty Bowman as the only coaches in NHL history to amass 800 victories.
Corey Crawford, who allowed just 7 goals during the Hawks' winning streak, watched 4 of the Stars' first 13 shots get past him.
Crawford (18 saves) didn't have much help in front, though, with Dallas (19-14-3) mostly scoring from in close off nice passes or redirections.
Crawford was 9-0-2 in his last 11 starts.