Stars rout Chicago, 5-1

In Chicago, the Blackhawks’ season continued to teeter on the edge of collapse in a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, on Thursday night.

Roope Hintz (four points) scored in the opening frame for a 1-0 lead to Dallas.

“I’m feeling good,” Hintz said. “I mean, I’m feeling good every time I go out there, so it’s fine.”

Anton Khudobin made 38 saves in the win.

Dominik Kubalik scored the lone for the Blackhawks in the first to tie the game, 1-1.

“The power play was a big difference in the game: they got two [2-for-3], we got zero [0-for-3],” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We looked the most dangerous at the end of first and would like to see us respond better to that adversity. Things are going to go against you sometimes. They’re a hard-working team, they’re not going to give us anything for free. Would like to see us handle that better.”

Dallas head coach Rick Bowness returned from COVID19 protocol.

“The biggest thing from this game to last game was the rest we had yesterday,” Bowness said. “We came in here on Tuesday and had two very tough, physical games back to back in Carolina, and we just didn’t have the energy to start the game on Tuesday. … We had more jump. We had to make adjustments after the first, the guys took the adjustments well, [Khudobin] made some big saves, we got some timely goals and got the win.”

Dallas scored three times in the middle frame.

“He (Hintz) shows what he means to our team, he’s our best forward,” Bowness said of Hintz. “You guys are seeing points and goals like tonight. What we see also is how well he plays without the puck, how reliable he is defensively. He’s one of the top two-way centers in the League, and he’ll keep getting better.”

Jason Robertson  and Miro Heiskanen scored in the second period to give the Stars a 3-1 advantage.

Blake Comeau scored the first of his two goals on the night before the end of the second period for a 4-1.

Coleman’s second goal came with just 50 seconds gone in the third period.

Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves in the loss.

“We seemed to be a little bit fragile,” the Blackhawk’ Connor Murphy said. “Instead of picking each other up and a mistake on a goal or a shift where they’re on us, we don’t seem to be responding very well. That’s on us as a group, and even a leadership group, to be able to recognize things and get our game going in the right direction.”