The Chicago Blackhawks got a rare fast start Sunday night on home ice.
The Hawks broke out with a 3-2 lead after the first period and then the house fell in on them.
The visiting San Jose Sharks five goals to their side of the sheet in a 7-2 victory.
“That’s one that could have gone off the rails pretty easily,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought we had a lot of composure on the bench. … There was a confidence to it. There wasn’t a panic to it, even when we were down. I thought [Dell] came in and gave us some big saves when he needed to.”
Melker Karlsson, Evander Kane, Kevin Labanc, Logan Couture, and Tomas Hertl all scored for the Sharks and each had two-point nights.
“We’re playing the right way now,” Couture said. “Less cheating, less chances being taken in bad areas of the ice. Defensively we’ve played some very strong hockey and when we do that, it may be hard to realize, but it always leads to offense. You’re always going to score more goals when you’re defending well.”
Aaron Dell made 16 saves after replacing starter Martin Jones in the fist period; Jones was soft (1 save on the night) on two of the three Hawks goals.
Corey Crawford left the Chicago net late in the first period with a concussion.
“He’s probably the guy that’s worked the hardest and held us in the most over the season,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy said. “So that’s never a good sign.”
Marcus Sorensen and Barclay Goodrow also scored for the Sharks.
“There’s no panic on our bench,” Goodrow said. “Lots of positivity. We knew if we stuck to the course we could climb back into it, and we played well after that.”
Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini scored for the Blackhawks in the first period.
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Blackhawks highlights | Crawford leaves game with concussion]
Crawford made six saves on eight shots.
Cam Ward finished the game and made 30 saves; he was abused by deflections most of the night and the final goal was frustrating sequence of passes that had the Blackhawks standing around and Ward spinning in the blue paint.
“We just didn’t play good defensively,” Strome said. “Lots of errors. We left [Ward] out to dry. It’s on us. He actually made some big saves for us and then we left him out there.
“When you’re out there, it doesn’t have much of an effect on if the goalie changes or whatever happens, we were just trying to continue to battle and that’s what happens sometimes.”
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