You might say the Blackhawks missed too many opportunities to count in a 3-2 loss to San Jose at the United Center on Tuesday, except the giant glowing numbers on the scoreboards did the tallying for everyone.
On 47 shots, the Hawks managed just two scores against the Sharks’ Evgeni Nabokov, failing to produce on any number of power-play opportunities, scrums in front of the net and pucks sliding unattended through the crease.
Marian Hossa zipped a shot over Nabokov’s shoulder at the 18:09 mark to make it a one-goal game and add at least a little drama to the proceedings, but the Hawks could not score with the empty net in the last minute.
Meanwhile, San Jose was efficient if not spectacular, taking advantage of Hawks’ gaffes for three scores on a mere 14 shots to take this round of a battle between the top two teams in the Western Conference.
The Hawks finally broke through on their 34th shot of the night, when Patrick Kane took a feed from Hossa in front of the goal and jammed a backhand by Nabokov to slice the deficit to 2-1 at the 4:10 mark of the third.
Then another Sharks rush vacuumed the energy out of the building. Twenty seconds later, Jason Demers took a feed from Joe Thornton on an odd-man rush and beat Cristobal Huet on a top-shelf slap shot, bumping the lead back to 3-1.
