Better effort by Blackhawks not enough to get past Flyers

Maybe the stars are beginning to align against these Blackhawks.

How else do you explain Jonathan Toews flat-out missing a wide-open net from five feet away?

Or the Hawks flat-out blowing a 5-on-3 power play that lasted nearly two minutes?

Or a puck bouncing off Christian Ehrhoff's stick and past Scott Darling, leading to a score by a Philadelphia Flyers defenseman who came into Wednesday's game with just 2 goals on the season?

All of those factors helped lead to Philadelphia's stunning 3-2 victory at the United Center, a setback that was the Hawks' fourth in a row.

"For the most part, we played better than we did the other night, that's for sure," said Brent Seabrook, referring to the team's 5-0 loss to the Kings on Monday. "It's something we can build off, but we've got to start getting some points here."

Coach Joel Quenneville agreed with Seabrook, saying that this was his team's best effort over the last week. Still, there's not a lot of room for moral victories for a team that still has its sights set on a division title and/or the top seed in the Western Conference.

"Obviously not the stretch we want," Patrick Kane said. "I don't want to say it's panic time, but at the same time, we have shore things up before playoffs come into play here.

"We have 11 games to do that. We need to start playing the right way now. You could say tonight was a step in the right direction to do that. Still didn't find a way to win, so not good enough."

For sure, the first 25 minutes of this game went the Hawks' way as they got a short-handed goal from Marian Hossa at 8:18 of the first period, were given a two-man advantage less than two minutes later, and grabbed a 2-1 lead when Jonathan Toews scored 4:58 into the second period.

Eight minutes after Toews' goal, though, came the sequence that turned this game on its head. With a charging Niklas Hjalmarsson trying to take a pass from Kane in the Hawks' offensive zone, the Flyers stole the puck and took off the other way on a 2-on-1.

Claude Giroux stormed in, stopped, spun and fed Brayden Schenn for a one-timer that Schenn buried for his 24th goal of the season.

"I was going to glide in a little bit, but then I realized it was Duncan Keith chasing him," Schenn said, "so I thought I would get on my horse a little bit and he made that spin-o-rama back pass to me, and I was able to put it in."

Radko Gudas notched the game-winner 9:53 into the third period. Ehrhoff could have earned a blocked shot, but he instead redirected it so that it bounced past Darling.

"Yeah, you want to block shots," Quenneville said. "But block 'em."

Early on, the Hawks had multiple chances to really put Philly on its heels.

The first came when Toews, staring at a wide-open net, fired and hit the post just feet away from goalie Michal Neuvirth. The next came moments after Hossa's goal when the Hawks had that two-man advantage for 1:53. Artemi Panarin had the best opportunity to score, but Neuvirth was too quick sliding to his right.

"We had a couple chances but nothing like we'd like to create with a full two minutes," Kane said. "We had to chase the puck a couple times and didn't really get it set up the way we wanted. So disappointed not to cash in there."

Darling started in net for the Hawks, making 26 saves. It was his first home loss of the season.

The Flyers are 9-1-1 in their last 11 games and moved 1 point ahead of Detroit for the final playoff spot in the East.