Hawks searching for answers after shutout

With 2 scores in 3 games, inept offense fast asleep

RALEIGH, N.C. — The work ethic was better, the effort visible and the offensive chances plentiful.

Answers to ending the Blackhawks’ scoring slump? Well, those are nowhere to be found.

Despite a far better performance than they had in a miserable loss to the Flyers, the Hawks dropped their fourth straight game, a 4-0 decision to the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena.

The Hawks, who have scored two goals in their last three games, fell to 2-5-2 and will host the Kings on Sunday at the United Center.

“It’s just a struggle right now to produce offense,” Patrick Kane said. “So hopefully it’s one of those things we start putting them in and it opens the floodgates.”

Coach Jeremy Colliton ripped the team’s work ethic after the Flyers loss Thursday, but that game was the exception and not the rule from the early part of the season. The Hawks played well in several games during their seven-game homestand, even if they didn’t win.

Entering Saturday’s game, Colliton was concerned that his players would get deflated if they continued not to be rewarded for their hard work. That concern proved prescient when the Hawks carried the play for much of the first two periods against the Hurricanes yet trailed 2-0 heading into the third.

Not long after Jordan Staal scored a power-play goal with 16 minutes, 41 seconds left in the third to make it 3-0, the Hawks shifted from pushing to get back into the game to waiting for it to be over.

“When they got the third goal, we started pressing a little bit and got a little bit loose defensively,” Colliton said. “They got a lot (of chances) the last 12 minutes, which I didn’t love. No one’s going to lend us a hand out of this. We’ve just got to keep playing.”

Corey Crawford stopped 28 shots in his return to the net after Robin Lehner played the last two games but couldn’t keep up with the Hurricanes’ Petr Mrazek, who made 31 saves for his 20th career shutout.

The Hawks penalty kill had allowed just one goal in the last four games, but the Hurricanes needed only five seconds on their first power play to take a 1-0 lead early in the first. Ryan Carpenter lost a defensive-zone faceoff, and Andrei Svechnikov’s wrist shot from near the left point beat Crawford through a screen.

It was the third time this season a Hawks opponent needed nine seconds or less to convert on a power-play chance.

“Things are just kind of snowballing in the wrong direction for us,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “It’s really easy to get frustrated, and you start searching for ways to try and end the slide. But we’ve just got to stay with it. We’ve got good players. It’s a long year and we can turn things around.”

An unfortunate sequence led to the Hurricanes getting the only goal of the second period. Brent Seabrook lost his stick in the Hawks zone, and despite Toews being able to hand him his stick back, the Hawks essentially were down a man for about 45 seconds. Nino Niederreiter slipped a shot past Crawford to make it 2-0.

The Hurricanes’ two power-play goals were in contrast to the Hawks, who failed to convert on any of their four chances and fell to 0-for-17 in the last four games.

Colliton steadfastly has denied the offensive problems are tied to the Hawks’ line combinations, even as he mixed things up Saturday. He reunited Kane and Toews on the top line with Alex DeBrincat and moved Alex Nylander to a line with Dominik Kubalik and David Kampf. Brandon Saad joined Kirby Dach and Andrew Shaw on the third line while Dylan Strome moved to the fourth.

Colliton was asked the inevitable question: If line combinations aren’t the issue, why make changes?

“Sometimes you get a little energy from that,” he said. “That’s why you do it in the games sometimes. You have combos that work, but things aren’t going your way, and when you switch the combos, it gives the guys a jolt of energy.

“It doesn’t mean you don’t believe in the combos — you probably end up going back to them. But in those situations, just playing with a different guy can sometimes give you a little boost and that’s what you need.”

Right now, the Hawks need a victory and to focus on what they have been doing right, which Kane admitted can be difficult.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “Especially when you’re not scoring goals and hockey seems to be tough. The message (is to) stay with it. Hopefully sooner or later those things are going to break, and that work you do is going to become easier and (we’ll) get rewarded for it.”