4 takeaways from Chicago Blackhawks’ 5-2 loss, including a 2nd-period meltdown and Patrick Kane’s praise for Ian Mitchell

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The Chicago Blackhawks found themselves on the wrong side of a mirror image.

They gave up five unanswered goals in a 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks at United Center Sunday, the same thing they did to the Sharks on Oct. 15 to cap off the opening road trip with their first win (also 5-2) of the season.

The Hawks have had meltdowns before, but give them points for creativity. Despite a solid start, the Hawks lost their fourth straight and 12th in their last 13 games.

“It’s tough,” Patrick Kane said. “We’ve been losing a lot of games and I think it wears on a lot of guys. Guys get frustrated. It’s understandable.

“We’ve got to find a way to not give up so much so easy. It’s obviously been a problem all year for us.”

The Hawks built a 2-0 lead in the second period — and how often have they been able to say that? — but frittered it away by allowing three goals before intermission.

“It looked like it was going right there for a while, and then it wasn’t,” Kane said.

The Hawks looked lifeless in the third as the Sharks’ Timo Meier and Evgeny Svechnikov put the game out of reach.

“Momentum’s a tough thing to figure out,” forward Sam Lafferty said. “We had it and then a couple bad bounces and then we don’t have it.”

Coach Luke Richardson added: “You get a little bit of that feel-sorry-for-yourselves and I think you end up retreating. In the third period, we didn’t play as aggressive as we did when we got the lead.

“That’s what happens when you get scored on, when you lose some games. when one thing bad happens.”

Here are four takeaways from the loss.

It took 31 1/2 minutes, a little more than a period and a half for the Blackhawks to build a two-goal lead.

They lost it in the next 2 minutes, 23 seconds: Jonah Gadjovich scored the Sharks’ first goal through heavy traffic and a kind bounce. Lafferty likened it to have “the wind knocked out of our sails.”

Then, 41 seconds later, Marc-Eduoard Vlasic added a deflection goal, which came after video review reversed it.

“(Richardson) talks about it all the time,” Kane said. “Whether we score a goal or give up a goal, that next shift after is so important.”

The real killer for the Hawks came next.

Alexander Barabanov found a crack of daylight to Petr Mrázek’s glove side to nudge the Sharks ahead with 1:26 left in the period.

What had been a two-goal advantage for the Hawks evaporated in the span of 3 minutes, 22 seconds.

“We’ve got to be better in those situations, just finding a way to get to the next period,” Kane said. “Have the intermission to regroup and settle down.”

Richardson summed it up.

“I just think our battle level wasn’t as high as the other team for 60 minutes tonight,” he said. “Stick battles, you might be beside the guy, but we’re not taking him. They got a lucky bounce, maybe, on the first one, but you make your luck by being harder than the other team.”

After going through an eight-game goal drought, Kane scored his third goal in the last six games to put the Hawks on the board first Sunday.

Sharks goalie Kaapo Kähkönen and Hawks defenseman Ian Mitchell each played key roles.

Kähkönen broke his stick while trying to make an exchange behind the net. A few seconds later, with Kähkönen back in net, Mitchell saw Hawks forward Tyler Johnson overrun the puck as San Jose’s Scott Harrington retrieved it.

Mitchell could see what was coming, and went back toward the blue line as Harrington tried to rim a pass to Mario Ferraro. The Hawks defenseman cut off Ferraro and muscled him back and managed to keep the puck from leaking out before dishing to Kane.

Kane used the threat of Max Domi coming up the flank to whip it by a stickless Kähkönen.

Kane praised Mitchell: “It was a great play by him. He held the blue line.”

“I think it’s something we can do more of if we have the right back pressure and the right setup to keep plays alive,” he added. “He made a great play holding it in. Nice heads-up play not to just throw it back down the wall, but find me in the middle.”

With his goal in the second period, Lafferty has four markers on the season — but three of them have come against the Sharks.

The other two were shorthanded goals during the Hawks’ first win of the season on Oct. 15. Lafferty scored his lone non-Shark goal Oct. 29 at the Buffalo Sabres.

“I don’t know,” Lafferty said of his success against San Jose. “Just seems kind of random.”

On Sunday, Andreas Athanasiou worked a two-on-two rush with Lafferty, and with Matt Benning defending him, threaded a back-door pass to Lafferty.

“Really nice play by Andreas and I was lucky enough to get rewarded for it,” Lafferty said.

Mrázek had a solid first period and kept the game scoreless despite facing six high-danger chances.

But after a bad bounce — Jonah Gadjovich capitalized on a scrum in front of Mrázek to score the Sharks’ first goal — it was all downhill from there.

One could argue Barabanov’s goal in the second was a bit of a softy, even if it was close range.

“I’m sure he’d love that one back,” Richardson said. “I don’t know if it ticked (Hawks defenseman Ian) Mitchell’s stick or just came off Barabanov’s stick wobbly.

“I’m sure he wants the short-side shots, but he played so well in the first and gave us a chance to get that 2-0 lead. We have to protect him now and play harder in front of him.”

In the third period, after stopping Tomáš Hertl’s deflection, the puck settled in front of Mrázek’s pad, but the Hawks goalie seemed unaware until Meier scooped it out and scored.

Richardson spread the blame for that one.

“Isaak (Phillips) in front of the net and he kind of pulls back” from Meier, Richardson said. “You have to flex him.”