Just when it appeared the Blackhawks would go quietly into the night, the offense came alive when Gustafsson and Murphy scored 1:10 apart with just over eight minutes remaining in the third.
"I liked that we didn't quit, that was a positive and I liked that we showed some fight in the third and we got going and put a scare into them," Colliton said. "But it's frustrating because we showed that was a winnable game if we played, if we turned on a little bit earlier. We've had a good stretch and that was a setback and now we've got to respond on Thursday (against the Lightning)."
The instant offensive electrified the United Center crowd of 21,325 and kept the Blackhawks buzzing but they couldn't find the equalizer against Mrazek.
"We got the crowd into it and it was a pretty good feeling that we could get that third (goal) and force overtime," captain Jonathan Toews said. "So it's nice to at least get that feeling when we get momentum in games, especially here at home that we can put a lot of pressure on teams, make them sit back on their heels, make them make mistakes, so it was nice to see."
Lehner said the Blackhawks had a talk following the second period and told each other to stick together and that helped lead to the strong third.
"Obviously, everyone in the building (knew) the first two periods weren't good enough," Lehner said. "They dominated us the first two periods, then we had a push and played the way we can (and) then we dominated them. But … (it's) a 60-minute game. (It's) go to bed, let this one go, come Thursday (and) win a game. Pretty simple."