Blackhawks drop fourth straight, lose 5-2 to Sharks

For a brief moment Sunday night against the Sharks, it looked like the Blackhawks would start 2023 on a positive note.

That didn’t last too long.

Despite taking a two-goal second-period lead, the Hawks lost 5-2to the Sharks. The Hawks, who began a seven-game homestand, have lost four straight and stayed rooted to the bottom of the NHL.

The way things ended Sunday, the Hawks won’t be getting out of last place anytime soon.

After a first period when the Hawks were outshot 13-6 but managed to get to intermission scoreless thanks to goalie Petr Mrazek, they scored the first two goals of the second. The goals woke up a crowd of 19,047, which resorted to doing The Wave early in the middle period.

Patrick Kane made it 1-0 at the 6:40 mark of the period after Ian Mitchell kept the puck in the zone and found Kane, whose shot from the slot beat Kaapo Kahkonen. Then 13:30 into the second, Andreas Athanasiou streaked down the left wing and fired the puck near the crease, where a crashing Sam Lafferty tapped it past Kahkonen.

Then the game turned.

The Sharks scored three goals over the next 3:22 of the second to take the lead. Goals from Jonah Gadjovich, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Alexander Barabanov put San Jose in front, and the Sharks padded their lead at the 3:52 mark of the third when Timo Meier jumped on a loose puck next to Mrazek and guided it into the net.

San Jose effectively clinched the game 12:55 into the third when Evgeny Svechnikov jumped on a loose puck in front of Mrazek and sent it in.

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