Blackhawks chase their own tails in shutout loss against Wild

One day after winning thanks to a second-period eruption of offense, the Blackhawks were felled by the same thing in a 4-0 loss Sunday against the Wild.

Kirill Kaprizov, Marco Rossi and Frederick Gaudreau all scored in the middle frame for Minnesota, breaking open what had been a goalless game after a boring first period. Kaprizov added a second marker in the third period as a near-sellout crowd of 19,636 trickled toward the United Center exits.

The Hawks struggled to gain and maintain puck possession and struggled even more to disrupt possessions for the Wild, who finished with a 37-24 advantage in shots on goal.

“It was like a dog chasing his tail,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We just couldn’t really muster too much together on offense, and then we couldn’t kill anything defensively. So [that led to] way too much time in the ‘D’-zone.

Wild rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt, making just his second career NHL start, didn’t have to work very hard to earn his first career shutout.

The Hawks have now been shut out 13 times this season, including 10 times in their last 33 games. They still tout a winning record since March 5 — their 3-2 victory over the Stars on Saturday ensured that — but they’ve slipped into a bad habit of not finding the net at all when not in top form.

“It wasn’t a lot of life out there,” Megna said. “[It was] a lot different from last night, where I thought we battled really hard. Tonight, we just couldn’t get anything going.”

Three-man success

The Hawks successfully killed off another five-on-three power play against them Saturday, and they’ve actually been quite effective in those scenarios this year.

They’ve allowed two goals in six instances of five-on-three power plays for their opponents, plus zero goals in two instances of four-on-three power plays for their opponents. In those scenarios, they’ve also allowed the third-fewest shot attempts per minute and seventh-fewest scoring chances per minute in the NHL.

Richardson said the Hawks’ five-on-three penalty-kill system is predicated on preventing the puck from going side-to-side across the ice, which would put their goalie well behind the shot.

“We’re usually trying to play on the inside and try to take the threat out of the one-timer,” he said. “We want to push [the play] down into the strong side corner. If they get a jam out of that…that’s great; everyone else will collapse and take the three options away.

“We want to try to keep it on one side, if we can, and lock it down. You have the best players in the world out there, so it’s hard to do.”

Opposite scenarios

The Hawks have also been fairly effective converting their own five-on-three power plays, although their underlying statistics are less impressive.

They’ve converted three of six instances of five-on-three power plays, plus two of four instances of four-on-three power plays. They just haven’t had nearly as many opportunities as a team like the Avalanche, who have enjoyed a combined 19. (They didn’t draw a power play of any kind Sunday.)

In those scenarios, the Hawks have produced the fifth-fewest shot attempts per minute and the seventh-fewest scoring chances per minute. They have committed more time to practicing five-on-three scenarios in February and March, though, drawing up more set plays — one of which directly led to Nick Foligno’s goal March 19 against the Kings, for example.