Dating back to Friday's overtime win over St. Louis, the Blackhawks have held an opponent to single-digit shot totals in four of their last five periods of regulation action.
Against the Blues, it was the second and third periods, with six and two shots allowed, respectively, that proved the difference in the multi-goal comeback victory. On Sunday against San Jose, Chicago stifled the Sharks offense in the first and third periods, with four and three shots allowed, respectively.
The difference, though, proved the be a second period push from the visitors that Chicago couldn't contain well enough, allowing 15 shots and a Timo Meier tip in front for the eventual game-winner.
"First period I thought we were all over them. I thought we did a good job of managing the puck through the neutral zone because that's what they do," interim coach Derek King said. "The second period we kind of changed the way we wanted to play and it cost us a little bit. We spent too much time in (our) zone. Third period I thought we turned it around and for the most part, I think that's one of the best games we've played all year.
It's a tough result to swallow given the scoreline, but the pieces are there for the team to continue building from their own net out. The Blackhawks now just need to find their scoring touch again to complete the defensive progress in recent weeks and not try to overextend themselves looking for offense.
"When you're going through a goal slump and you come up against teams like that that trap it up in the neutral zone and clog things up, you just have to be patient," King said. "You can't force the issue. The only time we got in trouble was when we were forcing the issue... They kept the ice tilted until we went back to the way we were playing in the first."
"Kinger tells us just to stick with it, not get discouraged and kind of pull away from the reasons why we're able to have that momentum," defenseman Connor Murphy said. "As it got towards the end or even the second period and we got frustrated, we started to try and force plays laterally instead of keeping it forward and keeping on top of them."