Sharks extend Blackhawks woes

In Chicago, the Blackhawks scored twice in the second period to take a 2-0 lead on the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.

Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty were the Chicago strikers.

From there, it was all San Jose, the Sharks hit back with five unanswered goals, three in the last six minutes of the second period, for a 5-2 win.

The loss was Chicago’s 12th in their last 13 games.

“Yeah, you get a little bit of that feel sorry for yourselves, and I think you end up retreating,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I thought in the third period, because of the second period when we were giving up a lead, we didn’t play as aggressive as we did when we got the lead. We were playing aggressive in the O-zone and D-zone and moving the puck better. That’s what happens when you get scored on, when you lose some games. When one thing bad happens, we’re not ready, at this point, to turn the page and get back to what we were doing well.”

The Blackhawks dropped to 8-24-4.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Kane said. “Obviously, we’ve been losing a lot of games, and I think it wears on a lot of guys. Guys get frustrated. It’s understandable. At the same time, when we’re in positions like we are tonight, we got to find a way to not give up so much so easy. It’s obviously been a problem all year for us. I think we had the right attitude. Guys want to win. Guys are staying positive. Especially tonight, I think we had a new outlook on things after the last year, and it being a new year and trying to start off the way we wanted to. It looked like it was going right there for a while, and then it wasn’t.”

On the flip side, Kaapo Kahkonen made 20 saves in the Sharks win.

Five different skaters scored for the Sharks.

“After our start to the game and it’s 2-0, you’re thinking, ‘Not again,'” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “I thought we really played well in the first period. I thought our first 10 minutes, we really set the pace and the tempo. We did everything with conviction.”

After Lafferty scored at 13:30, the Sharks replied with a strike from Jonah Gadjovich less than two minutes later to cut it to 2-1.

“It means we’re getting in the right areas and putting in the work, and we’re getting rewarded for it,” Gadjovich said. “It’s just a character win.”

Just 41 seconds after that goal, Marc-Edouard Vlasic potted a marker to tie the game, 2-2.

“I knew I didn’t kick it, but the ref was so convincing. He waved it off right away, so I thought it wasn’t a goal,” Vlasic said. “I didn’t kick it. I turned my foot, and evidently it counted.”

Alexander Barabanov struck for what would prove to be the game-winner at 18:34 and a 3-2 lead.

Timo Meier and Evgeny Svechnikov scored in the third period to cushion the lead in the 5-2 final.