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Defensive woes again plague Blackhawks in 6-5 loss to Jets - Valdosta Daily Times

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — It was the Blackhawks’ start to Thursday night’s game against the Jets that was supposed to get the most attention.

That’s what happens when you have been giving up goals by the bushel in the first period and in your most recent game were run out of your own building.

“I think it starts with the start,” Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton said before the game. “We’ve fallen behind too often and it makes it tough when you’re playing uphill, and we’ve played some good teams lately. So we want to avoid that.”

For the most part, they did. The Hawks fell behind twice in the first 20 minutes but managed to tie it up each time.

Then the second period began.

Nikolaj Ehlers, who had a hat trick, and Jacob Trouba scored 45 seconds apart during the first two minutes of the second to put the Jets in front for good in a 6-5 over the Hawks at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg.

Dominik Kahun scored with 6:10 left and Artem Anisimov added one at the 2:52 mark to bring the Hawks within a goal but they couldn’t complete their comeback and dropped to 9-12-5.

While the Jets were re-building their lead in the second and skating with the same ferocity as they had in the early part of the first, the Hawks didn’t have any shots over the first nine minutes. This included two minutes when their power play couldn’t muster a shot on goal.

Jan Rutta pulled the Hawks within 4-3 at the 10:29 mark of the second and they entered the third within striking distance. But Duncan Keith was called for slashing 21 seconds into the period and Patrik Laine scored his second goal of the game — and 21st of the season — less than a minute later.

It was Laine’s 10th power-play goal, which is one more than the Hawks as a whole have scored this season. The Jets have the NHL’s top-ranked power play while the Hawks have the worst. With an 0-for-2 effort on Thursday they dropped to 9-for-75 this season.

The Hawks have talked at length about playing a full game and not disappearing for long stretches but it happened again in the second. Ehler got the puck near the top of the slot and while four Hawks backed away from him and left him alone he ripped a slap shot over Corey Crawford’s right shoulder.

Just 45 seconds later, Trouba tapped in his own rebound while Keith, Brent Seabrook and Dylan Strome stood around him with their sticks nowhere near the ice.

Laine’s 20th goal and 100th of his career just 1:43 into the game gave the Jets a 1-0 lead and conjured up images of another first-period nightmare. Marcus Kruger’s third goal tied it up 80 seconds later with assists from Andreas Martinsen and Anisimov.

Ehlers’ first goal of the game made it 2-1 at the 16:08 mark but the Hawks again tied it soon when John Hayden put back a rebound after David Kampf had a nice rush to the net.

If Seabrook’s shot hadn’t clanked off the right post with just more than two minutes left, the Hawks would have taken a lead into the second.

Instead, they had to settle for a tie that wouldn’t last long at all.

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