CHICAGO _ Before Sunday's game against the Flames, Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton described how he envisions a potential future version of the Blackhawks.
"Relentless, never give up, play for the team, put individual priorities aside for team success, moving the puck forward, forcing them to make plays under pressure, play in the offensive zone," he said.
That was a hypothetical description.
They might be getting a little closer, but that's still not their reality.
The Blackhawks avoided tiresome trends of an onslaught of first-period goals and a lack of fight that has plagued them for several games. But the scoreboard still showed redundancy: another loss.
The Hawks fell 3-2 to the Flames at the United Center, extending their losing streak to four games.
The Blackhawks fired away in desperation toward the end of the third period and killed off two penalties in the frame, but they could not mount a comeback.
It was their seventh straight game of allowing an opponent to score first, but they finally pushed back.
The Hawks had allowed at least four goals in each of the previous six games' first periods. Nightmare after nightmare, their first-period woes allowed them to be outscored 17-4 in their last six opening periods. The Predators had scored three goals in the first 4 minutes, 11 seconds of the game Saturday night.
So Sunday must be seen as a sign of progress as the Hawks allowed the first goal but quickly answered instead of allowing it to snowball, tying it at 1 with a breakaway wrist shot by Jonathan Toews at the 11-minute, 33-second mark.
The barrage of opponent's goals didn't arrive on time. But it did arrive.
The Flames took advantage of a five-minute power play with goals from Elias Lindholm and _ less than two minutes later _ from Derek Ryan for a 3-1 lead. Both came on a power play after a critical and unnecessary penalty by Chris Kunitz at the 7:08 mark of the frame.
Kunitz was ejected from the game in the second period for a game misconduct _ just one day after Duncan Keith was ejected from the Predators game. He elbowed Travis Hamonic, who crashed to the ice and appeared to have a bloody nose that had stained his white jersey when he stood up.
The Blackhawks answered with their own power-play goal when Dylan Strome stuffed one home on the backhand off a feed from Alex DeBrincat to pull within 3-2. Perhaps as a moment of poetic justice, Corey Crawford earned an assist on the play _ his second of the season.
The Flames' James Neal earned the goalie interference penalty after he had run into the Hawks' net, then rolled over Crawford, essentially tackling him and pinning him to the ice.
Strome's goal helped turn around a miserable Hawks power-play trend; they had gone six straight games without a goal with the man advantage. The Hawks also killed four of six penalties in the game.
Crawford made 37 saves on a night when the Hawks were outshot 41-23.
"No one's happy with where we are," Colliton said before the game. "Everyone's miserable when you're playing in this situation. We have to find a way to turn it around. If the performance is better, the results will come, so that's the focus."
