Blackhawks send Sharks to seventh straight loss

SAN JOSE --The San Jose Sharks lost their season-high seventh straight game and missed a chance to gain ground in the Pacific Division, 5-4 to the Chicago Blackhawks at SAP Center on Thursday.

The Sharks (43-25-9) remained six points behind the first-place Calgary Flames and five points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights in the division. They've lost seven straight games for the first time since Feb. 2-15, 2013 (0-4-3).
"We've got to come back to work tomorrow and figure it out," Sharks forward Logan Couture said. "There's no easy recipe for getting out of slumps like this. In this league, every team goes through times like this. It's who gets out of it quickest and comes out of it the proper way, and that's what we're working to do."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Sharks highlights]
The Blackhawks (34-33-10) moved to within five points of the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Alex DeBrincat had two goals to become the second-youngest player in Blackhawks history to score 40 goals in a season. Connor Murphy, Jonathan Toews and Chris Kunitz also scored, and Corey Crawford made 26 saves.
"It's a big win," Toews said. "Every win's big now. Obviously our last loss was tough, put us in a tough position, but we're not accepting any fate any time soon so it's a big win for us to stay alive and keep that morale up and keep heading towards the end of the season in the right direction regardless of what happens in the standings."

Tomas Hertl had one goal and two assists in his 400th NHL game, and Martin Jones made 22 saves for San Jose, which is 0-6-1 in the past seven games.
The Sharks cut the Blackhawks lead to 4-3 at 6:29 of the second period when Hertl scored from the crease on a 5-on-3 power play. Timo Meier tied it 4-4 at 16:06 on a wrist shot from close range.
But Kunitz put the Blackhawks back ahead 5-4 at 18:08 when he deflected Patrick Kane's backhand flip from the point.
"This is the time of the year you want to play your best hockey," Sharks forward Gustav Nyquist said. "And it starts with you just got to look at yourself in the mirror and see what you got to do better and work hard. That's what it comes down to."

The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead at 4:10 of the first period when DeBrincat scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal.
Murphy made it 2-0 at 6:19 with a wrist shot from the point to the blocker side. Toews scored his 33rd goal on a rebound, increasing the lead to 3-0 at 10:59.
"We've had trouble scoring lately so to get those goals was probably a relief for everyone," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "We knew they were a desperate team also, they've been struggling, so you're kind of worried going into a game like this when they're at home and they've had a couple of games to sit on the results, so really good start for us."
San Jose cut it to 3-1 at 11:59 on Lukas Radil's wrist shot from the right face-off circle.
Nyquist's power-play goal on a snap shot at 2:33 of the second period brought San Jose within 3-2.

DeBrincat scored his 40th goal at 4:21, increasing Chicago's lead to 4-2.
"It's a cool accomplishment," DeBrincat said. "It's kind of what I've been working for and obviously I couldn't do it without my linemates giving me the puck and finding me in open areas, and a lot of times I'm just there to bang it in, so a lot of credit to them."

They said it

"We got ourselves behind and in a tough spot early in the season and I think that's just been the attitude that no matter what we've got to keep taking steps forward. We've got to keep building the right identity and we've got to keep building the right kind of culture in our locker room and tonight was no different in that sense." -- Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews
"Penalty trouble got us early, and again, same story. We're chasing the game the rest of the night. I thought we did a good job battling back to 4-4 and then they get that fifth goal. Throw it at the net and find a way to get a stick on it. It's one of those times now when everything that can go wrong is going wrong for us and we got to fight through it." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer

Need to know

DeBrincat scored his 40th goal at the age of 21 years, 100 days, second to Jeremy Roenick (21 years, 65 days), who did it on March 23, 1991. … Kane and DeBrincat are the second United States-born teammates in NHL history to each score 40 or more goals in a season. Kevin Stevens and Joe Mullen did it with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991-92. … Brandon Saad, Erik Gustafsson and Kane each had two assists for the Blackhawks. Couture had two assists for the Sharks.

What's next

Blackhawks:At the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCA+, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)