Blackhawks' 'bad habit' of blowing leads quickly costs them Game 3

CHICAGO – The rough estimate is that it’s occurred around 10 times this season: The Chicago Blackhawks score a goal, celebrate wildly and feel pretty good about life; then, under two minutes later, the opposing team scores to suck that momentum out of them like a parched vampire, consuming it for themselves.

It happened again in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. And it’s the primary reason why the Blackhawks are down 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning after a 3-2 loss on Monday night.

“It’s frustrating. A lot of things we did today gave us the feeling we were going to come out on top with the effort we gave. It was just a couple of little bad habits that ended up hurting us,” said captain Jonathan Toews. “We are responsible for that, but I think this game could have been similar to the way we stole Game 1 from them.”

The idea that the Blackhawks need to steal anything from the Lightning may be one of the series’ most unpredictable swings. Chicago can dominate for stretches – see the first period following the Bolts’ goal, when they destroyed the Lightning in even strength possession, scored a goal to tie it and had Marian Hossa and Teuvo Teravainen miss open nets.

But they let the Lightning grab some confidence in the second period, and then instead of a dagger to their hearts with a third-period tally by Brandon Saad, they gift-wrapped a goal in the third period to Ondrej Palat 13 seconds later.

With the game tied 1-1, Marian Hossa fed Saad in the slot for a one-timer that blasted through Ben Bishop, who labored all game with an undisclosed lower body injury. The Blackhawks celebrated their lead, at 4:14 of the third period.

A lead that, again, lasted 13 seconds.

The Lightning put their Triplets line on the ice. The Blackhawks countered with Marcus Kruger’s checking line, along with Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya, himself battling an injury.

Nikita Kucherov rushed into the Blackhawks zone down right wing. He flipped the puck in front of goalie Corey Crawford, as linemate Ondrej Palat crashed the net.

“Bouncy play. I tried to get it and he came in at the same time with his stick. It was a 50/50 puck,” said Crawford. “I didn’t lose the puck. It bounced around. Backhand to the front of the net, bounced around. Then I found it, thought I had time to cover it up and then he came in.”

Palat poked the puck from under Crawford’s glove to tie the game.

The reaction from the Hawks’ bench told you everything you needed to know:

“Certainly you can't give up that type of goal,” said Coach Joel Quenneville.

Center Brad Richards said it’s a case of the opponent wanting to even up the score as much as his team wanting to prevent it. “They’re trying to come out and have a strong shift after the goal. I know it has happened a lot to us after a goal and we’ve addressed it. Sometimes that’s just hockey,” he said.

Momentum left the Hawks, floated to the Lightning, and Cedric Paquette’s goal at 16:49 of the third ended up the game-winner.

All thanks to another lead given away seconds after it was earned.

Like in Game 3 vs. Nashville in Round 1, when the Blackhawks conceded the lead with Predators goals 31 seconds and 22 seconds after Chicago scored.

Like in Game 5 against Nashville, when Richards scored in the first and Filip Forsberg answered 1:15 later.

Like in Game 4 against Anaheim, when the Hawks built a 3-1 lead and then watched the Ducks score three goals in 35 seconds(!) to take the lead.

Some of these games, they win. Some of these games, they lose.

But the trend has continued onto a stage of the playoffs where it’s inexcusable to keep occurring.

“We make mistakes. It happens. We’ll improve on it and move on,” said Toews.

“That’s all we can do right now.”

 MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY