LOS ANGELES — Another letdown towards the last-place Kings left the Blackhawks one sport away from elimination within the wild-card race.
The Hawks blew a one-goal lead with 4 minutes left in regulation and misplaced 3-2 in additional time to complete the season sequence winless towards the Kings, who’re by far the worst group within the Western Conference.
“We had our stretches where we were really good, [but] you never know when the game’s on the line,” coach Jeremy Colliton stated. “The sport’s at all times on the road.
“If you let down for 5, 10 seconds … you get punished. That’s form of what occurred. Even although we did quite a lot of good issues, don’t matter if you happen to don’t put all of it collectively.”
The Blackhawks fell aside Saturday night time in Los Angeles, ending the season sequence 0-1-2 towards the Kings. Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
Both of the Kings’ targets in regulation got here on psychological errors by the Hawks, they usually obtained the sport winner after Jonathan Toews was referred to as for a holding penalty with 30 seconds left in additional time. The Kings cashed in on the ability play when Drew Doughty drove a protracted one-time previous Corey Crawford.
Toews expressed his anger over the decision on the ice, however didn’t discuss to the media after the sport. Colliton averted giving his opinion on it, saying the Hawks ought to have executed extra to maintain the sport from attending to that situation.
The Hawks at the moment are six factors behind the Avalanche for the ultimate playoff spot with 4 video games to play. They face the specter of mathematical elimination Monday, once they host the Jets whereas the Avalanche play on the Blues.
The Avalanche lead the four-team battle for the second wild card at 85 factors, adopted by the Coyotes (82), Wild (81) and Hawks (79). The Hawks’ tragic quantity is three, that means any mixture of factors gained by the Avalanche and factors missed out on by the Hawks will knock them out.
“Just keep going here until we’re told otherwise,” Patrick Kane stated. “Obviously we’re professionals, we play in the NHL and we still have four games left here to try to close out and see what happens. Worry about what we can worry about and try to get two points.”
The Hawks went up 2-1 on Erik Gustafsson’s rocket from simply contained in the blue line three minutes into the third interval. It was his 17th of the season, essentially the most by a Hawks defenseman since Dustin Byfuglien in 2009-10.
Kings middle Michael Amadio tied it on an uncontested look within the slot with 4:15 remaining.
“You’ve got to be better,” stated Gustafsson, who was on the ice for Amadio’s objective. “You’ve got to close the game. When there’s five minutes left, just ship it out.”
Alex DeBrincat got here by means of for the Hawks after a scoreless first interval by sneaking one previous Kings goaltender Jack Campbell off his personal rebound. It was his third objective in two video games after a droop, and he tied Patrick Kane for the group lead at 41.
DeBrincat led the Hawks final season with 28 targets as a rookie.
Kane, DeBrincat and Jonathan Toews all struggled currently, however Kane is the one one who hasn’t gotten going once more. He has gone 9 straight video games with out a objective and has two in his final 16. He had eight photographs towards the Kings after getting simply two in every of the 2 earlier video games.
“I had some looks, had some chances — even a couple in overtime there,” Kane stated. “It would’ve been a perfect time to get one there and end the drought, but yeah, it’s frustrating. You’ve gotta try to grind and battle through it and come back Monday and be ready to go and try to help the team.”
Corey Crawford stopped the primary 18 photographs he confronted earlier than permitting one on Austin Wagner’s breakaway. Toews and Brandon Saad obtained tousled within the impartial zone and misplaced the puck, and Wagner outraced defensemen Carl Dahlstrom and Connor Murphy to get Crawford one-on-one.
Crawford saved 26 of the 29 photographs he confronted and has been an enormous purpose the Hawks have stayed within the wild-card hunt. In 14 video games since getting back from a concussion, he has a .919 save…