After the Chicago Blackhawks rallied from four goals down Saturday to beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in overtime, coach Luke Richardson warned that most teams won’t allow multigoal comebacks.
The Hawks got a prime example Thursday in Ottawa, Ontario.
A frenetic third period couldn’t rescue the Hawks from sleepwalking through most of the first two periods in a 2-0 loss to the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.
It was the 12th time this season the Hawks were shut out.
“There’s too many games we’re not ready to start the game,” coach Luke Richardson said.
Added forward Ryan Donato: “We learned in San Jose that you can come back in games (but) you don’t want to get in that situation where you’re down. You’d rather be playing with the lead, and good teams can play well with the lead and this team did that tonight.
“They shut everything down.”
When Artem Zub tripped Philipp Kurashev nine seconds into the game, it seemed as if the Hawks might get off to another fast start, similar to when Seth Jones scored the opening goal on a power play 3 1/2 minutes into a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Just the opposite happened: The Senators scored a short-handed goal on the Hawks’ opening power play. Jones lost the puck to Claude Giroux as he tried to keep the puck in the zone.
On the other end, Jones bit on a phantom pass from Giroux, clearing the middle lane, but with Jones out of the way, Giroux lowered his stick, gathered the puck and beat Petr Mrázek for the shorty 36 seconds into the game.
It was the fastest short-handed goal allowed to a Hawks opponent in franchise history, beating the New York Rangers’ in a Jan. 11, 1957 game at Chicago Stadium by one second, according to NHL Stats. It also was the Senators’ fastest short-handed goal from the start of a game.
“Giving one up and then not creating anything more than a secondary chance on two power plays is not good enough,” Richardson said.
Several Hawks noted how the Senators hogged possession and made it difficult to get inside on offense.
“They play hard,” defenseman Kevin Korchinski said. “Even so, we know our game, we know what works. We’ve get pucks low and grind away and chip away at their D-men. So we’ve got to get back to that, how we played last game.”
If there was a bright spot or two, Nick Foligno’s line with Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh played well, while Lukas Reichel continued his late-season revival, including one play in particular.
“Reichel showed some bursts and so did AA (Andreas Athanasiou) in the third period,” Richardson said.
During a second-period attack, Reichel outraced former Hawks forward Dominik Kubalik to a puck and barreled through sticks and defenders to crash the crease, but Jacob Bernard-Docker prevented him from getting a shot off.
Earlier in the day, Richardson expressed his appreciation about his impending induction into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame on May 28.
“(Hall of Fame Chair) Dave Best gave me a call,” Richardson said. “It was humbling. Just honored. This is my home and I still come home here in the summer. .. I went to Gary Galley’s when he was inducted (in 2010). It’s a big deal and real proud and I’m looking forward to it.”
