Blackhawks fall to late Hurricanes goal
As Patrick Kane tossed a perfect saucer pass to Dominik Kubalik in the waning moments of Thursday's game at the United Center, the entire Blackhawks bench rose in anticipation.
Having battled back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, here was a chance to pull off an unlikely two-game sweep of Carolina - considered one of the best teams in the NHL.
Kubalik settled the puck down, charged in on James Reimer and released a shot that seemed to beat the Hurricanes' netminder through the five-hole.
But Reimer made the save and the game stayed tied 3-3 with only 40 seconds remaining.
Incredibly - just 11 seconds later - the Hurricanes scored the game-winner.
Carolina won a defensive zone faceoff, raced the other way and made it 4-3 when Jesper Fast batted in a rebound. The original shot bounced off Kevin Lankinen's left leg and then his stick.
"Tough way to lose," said coach Jeremy Colliton. "No doubt."
After Kubalik's near-miss, it may not have been a bad idea for the Hawks to call timeout, but Colliton said he never considered it.
Instead, Kane lost the faceoff and some poor defensive coverage by Calvin de Haan and Duncan Keith allowed Vincent Trocheck to cruise over the blue line and fire a shot with 32 seconds remaining. The puck deflected off de Haan's sweater and ended up going to Fast after bouncing off Lankinen's left leg.
"We'd like to have a better gap on the entry," Colliton said. "Ultimately it was a 3-on-3 on the net and they found a way to stay in the battle more than us. Mistakes are made in a game. That one ended up in the back of a net."
Kubalik, who now has 12 goals, wished he was just a bit more accurate on his final shot.
"It was a pretty good save, but maybe if I'd have gone a little harder or put it in a little bit different spot it would go in because the hole was there," he said. "I knew it right away, that it had stayed there. Then they scored on the way back, so that's pretty frustrating."
Much like Tuesday, when the Hawks won 2-1, the Hurricanes (13-3 SOG; 8-1 high-danger chances) completely dominated the first period.
The Hawks got goals from Kubalik (12), Hagel (5) and Dylan Strome (7).
Kubalik scored at 15:21 of the second period after bull-rushing the middle of the ice and fighting for the puck with Jacob Slavin. It was actually Slavin who whacked the puck through goalie Reimer's legs.
Hagel tapped in a loose puck at 5:46 of the third, and Strome deflected a long shot from Connor Murphy at 10:24. It was Strome's second goal in as many games.
It appeared the game would go to overtime, in which case the Hawks (17-16-5) would have gained at least 1 critical standings point.
But it was not to be.
"A point would've been good, for sure," said Colliton, who now must prepare his team for a critical game at Nashville. "We had a great chance. We had an offensive zone faceoff; it sets up pretty well. Tough. Especially because we battled back a couple of times earlier, put ourselves in that position.
"We've been a resilient team all year. We've got to show our colors going into Saturday."