Blackhawks better, but still can’t get a win

In the end, the Blackhawks couldn’t stop the bleeding Tuesday night.

Despite playing probably their best game in two weeks, the Hawks saw their losing streak reach a hard-to-believe nine games by falling 3-2 in Nashville.

In a game decided by goaltending, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that it was the Hawks coming out on the short end.

The Predators got the winning goal from Ryan Ellis with 5:42 to play on a shot that Ray Emery has to stop.

Ellis’ slap shot from the right circle grazed the stick of Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith, but Emery still let the puck get through him.

Emery took responsibility for the goal.

“That’s one I really want to stop and it just hits off the defenseman,” Emery said. “You have to stop the trend sometimes, so I really have to stop that.”

Meanwhile, Nashville’s Pekka Rinne was sensational with 30 saves, picking up his teammates time and time again with big stops at key times.

The Predators had only 3 shots on goal in the third period, but Emery couldn’t pick up his teammates after Marian Hossa’s goal at 6:05 of the third period made it 2-2.

Another spotty performance by a Hawks goalie came a day after general manager Stan Bowman supported his team’s goaltending, saying it wasn’t a priority to upgrade the position before the Feb. 27 trade deadline.

The Hawks have allowed at least 3 goals in each of the nine games during their losing streak.

The offense also has dried up. Hossa scored for the first time since Jan. 21, earning his first point in seven games, but the line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp didn’t deliver.

In fact, it was a turnover by Toews that resulted in the game’s first goal by Ryan Suter at 18:20 of the first period.

Bryan Bickell tied it 46 seconds later, but the Predators went back ahead at 17:21 of the second period on Nick Spaling’s deflection.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville tried to be encouraged in his brief comments after the loss.

“This was a tough loss,” he said. “If you look at the stretch we’ve had here, we’ve had different ways of finding a way not to come out on top. But tonight it looked like we were doing the things we wanted to do and were in the right direction and maybe get it to overtime and see what happens.

“It was disappointing in a lot of ways because we were doing what we wanted to do and then at the end of the day it’s like, OK.”

The road trip from you know where continues Thursday at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, maybe the NHL’s best team with certainly the best goalie in Henrik Lundqvist.

You can’t like the Hawks’ chances of avoiding a 10-game losing streak.

“We’ve still got to build off what we achieved tonight and go into New York with the same type of attitude,” Quenneville said. “I thought we had more urgency in our game.

“I thought we had more purpose in our game. That’s what it’s going to take to get out of it, and just stick with it and find a way.”

tsassone@dailyherald.com