Hawks head to West Coast without key trio

For about 50 minutes Thursday at the United Center, the Blackhawks looked to be on their way to a fifth straight win — an ugly one — but a victory nonetheless.

Instead, the Dallas Stars scored 3 consecutive goals in the final 11 minutes to leave a Blackhawks team that was feeling pretty good about itself during its recent winning streak to ponder an ugly, ugly loss.

“Tough, tough, tough,” was how Hawks coach Joel Quenneville aptly described Thursday’s finish.

The start of their weekend trip to California wasn’t any better as the Hawks’ charter took off without three passengers — Jonathan Toews, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Steve Montador.

All three are sidelined with upper body injuries, possibly concussions.

Toews wasn’t scheduled to play Thursday — and that was before his one-car collision in Chicago earlier in the day — and he figured to be a longshot to play this weekend.

Montador’s prognosis hasn’t been good for a while and there has even been talk that he may be done for the season.

The most surprising name on the no-fly list is Hjalmarsson, who just returned to the lineup Thursday after missing seven games. The defenseman was on the ice for just over 16 minutes and finished a plus-1.

“He was fine, steady,” Quenneville said of Hjalmarsson after the game.

The Hawks head into the weekend sixth in the Western Conference with 73 points, but with a pack of five teams within 9 points of them with 20 games remaining on the schedule.

“It’s an amazing race,” Quenneville said. “You look at all the teams that are in the mix there and how the standings change on a day-to-day basis. That’s why the points (Thursday) were very valuable.”

“That was a tough loss,” said Marian Hossa, who scored the Hawks’ lone goal against Dallas. “We felt like we had a good thing going. It was a tough third period.”

The Hawks will try to get a good thing going again in Los Angeles on Saturday and in Anaheim on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a good test,” Quenneville said of the mini-West Coast swing. “Both teams are in the mix, they’re right in the playoff hunt.

“We know the importance and value of points; we’ve got to be better than we’ve shown recently.”