Chicago Blackhawks let 3-1 lead slip away, fall 6-3

After blowing leads of 1-0 and 3-1, the Blackhawks were handed a golden opportunity to break a 3-3 tie late in the third period Tuesday when Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau tripped up Matthew Highmore.

But a bizarre pile up on the faceoff led to a mad scramble for the puck, which finally squirted loose to Aleksander Barkov along the boards.

Suddenly, advantage Blackhawks became advantage Panthers.

Barkov raced out of the defensive zone and through the neutral zone in a developing 2-on-1. Understanding that he didn't have a clear lane to pass to the charging Noel Acciari, Barkov slammed on the brakes and found the trailing Mackenzie Weegar, who fired a shot on net.

Hawks goalie Kevin Lankinen made the initial stop, but Barkov was there to slam in the game-winner with 6:34 remaining as the host Panthers claimed a 6-3 victory.

Patrick Kane and Ryan Carpenter had joined Adam Boqvist in defending the odd-man rush, but Kane had inexplicably glided 30 feet away from the net when Barkov scored. Kane also ended up out of position as players were fighting for the puck after the faceoff, leaving his point unprotected.

Florida (19-5-4) added 2 empty-net goals to account for the final score. The Hawks (14-11-5) have dropped four of five and now must face Tampa Bay in back-to-back games.

"Obviously what happened at the end with the power play is inexcusable," coach Jeremy Colliton said. "Tough to explain how that happens."

Tough to explain how these leads keep disappearing, too. This was the fifth time in a little more than a month that the Hawks watched a winnable game get away from them.

"It's a good reminder of what it takes to win in this league," said Lankinen, who made 30 saves. "We can't let the game slip away for five seconds or five minutes. It's gonna cost you. We're learning that the hard way now.

"But in the long run I'm sure we will mature, we will learn from this and we'll be an even better team coming up."

Kane, Philipp Kurashev and Brandon Hagel scored for the Hawks.

Florida's comebacks came courtesy of 2 power-play goals as Duncan Keith was called for tripping Barkov late in the first period, and Alex DeBrincat tripped Aaron Ekblad just one minute after Hagel made it 3-1.

Colliton went so far as to call Keith's penalty "stupid." Asked a follow-up about it moments later, Colliton said: "It wasn't the only poor thing that happened tonight. So we'll leave it at that."

The Hawks have allowed 15 power-play goals on 37 chances the last 12 games, a 40.5% clip that is costing them games.

Colliton was actually happy with large parts of Tuesday's performance, but he admitted that Florida showed far more desperation at key moments. It's something the Hawks have done in spurts this season, but not often enough to consistently compete with the top three teams in the Central Division.

"We've shown it. We've seen it. We bring it a lot of the time," Colliton said. "That's part of why we've been good. ... We've gotten some big wins because of that. The top teams, they have a high level.

"They have more guys that probably bring that and you've got to be at your best all the time. Most of the time is not gonna cut it."