CHICAGO _ Because life is logical, the Blackhawks were a shoo-in to beat the Panthers on Sunday night at the United Center.
Here's how that was supposed to play out: the Hawks won consecutive road games against the playoff-contending Stars and Avalanche before coming home rested and ready to take on a Panthers team weary from playing the night before.
And how did that work out? Well, turns out life isn't logical at all.
The Panthers scored three second-period goals, including a pair 31 seconds apart, to beat the Hawks 6-3 and end their longest winning streak of the season at three games.
It seemed like luck was going to be on the side of the Hawks. In the first period, the Panthers' Evgeni Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov each hit the post in a matter of four seconds. In the second period, the Hawks tied the game at two when a puck hit off a post before deflecting to Alex DeBrincat, who scored his 17th of the season.
But the Panthers shrugged those off and snapped the 2-2 tie on a power-play goal by Mike Hoffman and Jared McCann's sixth goal of the season 31 seconds later to take control of the game.
After Connor Murphy's first goal of the season gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead, the Panthers' Jayce Hawryluk made Carl Dahlstrom and Cam Ward look silly to score the first goal of his NHL career and tie the game up.
Hawryluk poked the puck away from Dahlstrom just over the Hawks' blue line and went around him, which prompted Ward to come out and play the puck. But Hawryluk beat Ward to it and easily went around him before shooting into an open net.
Hawryluk wasn't afforded the same luxury in the second period when he had a breakaway but he didn't need it, wristing a shot over Ward's right shoulder to make it 2-1.
DeBrincat's second-period power play goal came after his initial pass into the slot bounced off the skates of Dylan Strome and the Panthers' Mike Matheson before hitting the post and circling back to DeBrincat, who made it 2-2.
Strome had two assists and added a third-period goal to give him nine on the season, including six in 15 games since joining the Hawks.
