RECAP: Late push not enough for Panthers in loss to Blackhawks

After falling behind 3-0 in the second period, the Florida Panthers saw their comeback attempt fall just short in a 4-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.
Of Florida's 31 shots, 15 came in the third period.
"We battled until the end, but we had to because we were so bad in the first two periods," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "We put ourselves in a terrible position. It was definitely our worst two periods of hockey this season.
"We've got the talent that when we play the right way and are playing aggressive and not sitting back and being smart with pucks, we can do what we did there in the third and take over a period and give ourselves a chance to win."

Earning an early power play after Alex Stalock put on a bit of theatrics to make sure he drew an interference penalty on Colin White, the Blackhawks opened the scoring when Taylor Raddysh beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a slap shot to make it 1-0 at 2:57 of the first period.
Giving up a rare even-strength goal, the Panthers then fell behind 2-0 when Patrick Kane took a pass from Andreas Athanasiou and picked a corner from the center of the right circle at 19:37.
"We left Bob out to dry," Tkachuk said. "They had a lot of chances early, a breakaway early, and they scored in the last minute, which can never happen. Learn from it. I don't think we took these guys lightly, but it just shows you that any team can beat anybody on any given night."
Despite earning five power plays in the second period -- including 1:35 of a 5-on-3 advantage -- the Panthers unfortunately failed to break through with the extra attacker. Over the course of those power plays, the Blackhawks stood tall on the PK while allowing just five shots on goal.
Florida finished the game 0-for-6 on the power play.
"We've got lots of talent out there," Tkachuk said. "We're making good plays and getting [into the zone] fine. Maybe it's too many one-and-dones. Puck recoveries aren't great right now, and that's on us. That's on guys like me around the net. We've got to get those pucks back and bury a greasy goal one of these days."
After Gustav Forsling took a puck off the foot, Philipp Kurashev skated around the ailing defenseman before lifting a shot over Bobrovsky's blocker to put Chicago up 3-0 at 15:58.
Igniting the Panthers' late rally, red-hot Eetu Luostarinen finally got one past Stalock in the third period when he crashed the crease and lifted a loose puck into the twine to make it 3-1 at 11:32.

"I think you've got a number of players feeling a little snakebit right now," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "We're missing some wide-open nets. Just seeing one go in just fired the bench right back up."
Just 1:15 after Luostarinen's tally, the Panthers made it a one-goal game when Tkachuk re-directed a point shot from Brandon Montour into the cage to trim the deficit to 3-2. With the goal, Tkachuk broke a brief tie with Luostarinen for the club's goals lead with his fourth of the season.
Bobrovsky finished with 18 saves, while Stalock stopped 29 of 31 shots he faced.
Continuing to push hard after pulling the goalie to gain a 6-on-5 advantage in the final minutes of regulation, Florida's comeback ended up falling just short when Jonathan Toews won a race for a loose puck and scored an empty-net goal to make it 4-2 with 23 seconds left on the clock.
At 4-2-1, the Panthers will look to get back in the win column in Philadelphia on Thursday.
"This is a two-game road trip, and we're not a team that's going to lose two in a row," Tkachuk said. "That's our mindset. Would've loved to get the first one to set up the road trip, but now we've got to really grind out a tough one against Philly. After we beat them last week, they're going to be coming for us, so we have to be better."

KEY QUOTES

"We've had a good start with our 5-on-5 play. I'd put our 5-on-5 play up against anybody in the league right now. We just have to stay positive. They're going to start going in [on the power play]. We've just got to get guys and pucks to the net." -- Matthew Tkachuk on getting things going on the man advantage.
"I really enjoy playing with them. They're really smart guys and they can make plays." -- Eetu Luostarinen on playing with Anton Lundell and Colin White.
"That was the one kind of bright spot in our game is they don't quit. They have a real belief they can come back and win those games, and rightfully so. If you're looking at the positives other than that, we aren't bragging about that one." --Paul Maurice on Florida's no-quit attitude.

CATS NOTES

• Eetu Luostarinen has recorded at least one point in five of seven games.
  - Florida's winning streak against Chicago comes to an end at four games.
  - Aleksander Barkov recorded a team-high five shots on goal.
  - Brandon Montour saw a team-leading 28:26 of ice time.
  - The Panthers led 28-9 in scoring chances at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (4-2-1) will wrap up their two-game road trip with a rematch against the Philadelphia Flyers (4-2-0) at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.