Blackhawks 2-game win streak snapped as they're shut out 4-0 by the Stars

The Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Dallas Stars for their fourth consecutive contest at the United Center on Saturday, Oct. 17. They were trying to build on their momentum from a two-game winning streak. Unfortunately, it was not to be. They were frustrated at every turn by a heavy Stars team, and were shut out 4-0 once it was all said and done.

Here's more on the lineup, highlights and game reaction.

Blackhawks lineup and special teams

Roman Kantserov - Connor Bedard - Patrick Kane

Tyler Bertuzzi - Anton Frondell - Teuvo Teravainen

Oliver Moore - Frank Nazar - Ryan Donato

Cole Smith - Ryan Greene - Jordan Greenway

Alex Vlasic - Ian Cole

Wyatt Kaiser - Artyom Levshunov

Ethan Del Mastro - Sam Rinzel

Spencer Knight/Arvid Soderblom

Scratches: Kevin Korchinski, Dominic Toninato, Bowen Byram (upper body), Andrew Mangiapane (lower body)

While the forward lines remained the same as last game, the defensive pairings were changed up a little bit. Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel were swapped on the right side, as Wyatt Kaiser played with Rinzel before, and Ethan Del Mastro with Levshunov.

Spencer Knight got his fourth consecutive start.

Power play units

PP1: Bertuzzi, Bedard-Kantserov-Kane, Teräväinen

PP2: Donato, Moore-Nazar-Frondell, Rinzel

Penalty kill participants

Vlasic, Frondell, Teravainen, Cole, Greene, Levshunov, Kaiser, Smith, Greenway, Nazar

Blackhawks Game Notes

• After some back and forth to start the game, mostly on the side of the Stars, Jason Robertson thought he finally beat Blackhawks' netminder Spencer Knight to make the score 1-0. But the Blackhawks challenged for offside and won the call. The goal was negated and it was still a 0-0 game.

• The Stars continued to pretty much dominate the play through the rest of the first frame. The Blackhawks seemed to get their feet under them a little bit more at the end of the period, generating some quality chances. However, shots showed as 12-5 for the Stars headed into intermission.

• Blackhawks D-man Artyom Levshunov was called for tripping at the 3:19 mark of the second frame. The Hawks ALMOST had that penalty killed, but Robertson scored at the last minute to make it 1-0 for real now for the Stars. The tally was assisted by Mikko Rantanen and Thomas Harley.

• The Blackhawks successfully killed off another Stars power play, but shortly thereafter Sam Steel fed a nice pass Arttu Hyry to make it 2-0 for the Stars. The puck slid past Patrick Kane along the boards and left Sam Rinzel as the only defender.

• A much needed power play was awarded to the Blackhawks at the end of the second, but a breakaway chance the other way led to a hooking penalty by Kane. The middle frame mercifully came to an end with the Stars leading 2-0 in goals and 24-11 in shots on goal.

• The Stars scored again just a few minutes into the third period. It was courtesy of Hyry again, this time with Nils Lundkvist picking up the assist. It looked like a bad line change by the Blackhawks.

• To add insult to injury, Roope Hintz found the back of the net at the 9:40 mark of the third. He was assisted by Tyler Seguin and Robertson.

• At the end of the night, the Blackhawks were shut out 4-0 by the Stars and outshot 33-19. It's hard to win a game only generating 19 shots on goal, but they also didn't seem to win any of their battles all night. This is one to throw in the garbage.

Quotable Quotes

Alex Vlasic admitted postgame that this was a hard team to play, another playoff-caliber team where the Blackhawks just didn't stack up. "Yeah, we just kind of made too many mistakes out there. You know, with pucks, passes, misplaced, kind of all around the ice. It seemed like they were just jumping on anytime we turned the puck over. Yeah, obviously they have a lot of skilled players up front, so they're gonna make you pay anytime you're turning it over frequently like that."

A frustrated Ian Cole didn't pull any punches after the game. He had nothing nice to say about the team's play on both sides of the ice. "Obviously, we didn't score a goal. That's obviously an issue. You're not going to win a lot of games not scoring a goal. Gave up way too much. Unfortunately, it hasn't been uncommon thus far."

Bedard tried to put a positive spin on things, saying that the team knows how to rebound from this kind of loss. "We're talking all game, whatever we see, and I think we got a lot of guys that do that, including myself ... I think we know what we we did wrong tonight, and we know how to correct it."

Head coach Jeff Blashill, for his part, was pretty blunt about things. "We had enough chances in the first to score, and after that we didn't." He further indicated the team stopped attacking the net and passed up on opportunities to score.

Regarding the defensive side of things, he indicated the Blackhawks could learn a couple of things from playing these type of playoff-caliber teams. "One is those teams rarely beat themselves. And two, they are really heavy on their sticks. So we got to win ton of stick battles. We got to find ways not to beat ourselves."

The Blackhawks will now have five days between games to lick their wounds. It's not ideal to be off for that length of time, but it's unfortunately the way the schedule is. Blashill said they'll have a combination of rest and practice and try to be as ready for the next game as they can be.

The Blackhawks host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday, Oct. 23, and then meet the Florida Panthers on Sunday (Oct. 25) and the L.A. Kings the following Tuesday (Oct. 27) to complete their seven-game homestand.

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