Blackhawks chase their own tails in shutout loss to Wild

One day after winning because of a second-period outburst of offense, the Blackhawks were felled by the same thing in a 4-0 loss Sunday to the Wild.

Kirill Kaprizov, Marco Rossi and Frederick Gaudreau scored in the middle frame for the Wild, breaking open what had been a goalless game after a boring first period. Kaprizov added a second goal in the third period as a near-sellout crowd of 19,636 trickled toward the exits at the United Center.

The Hawks struggled to gain and maintain puck possession and struggled even more to disrupt possessions for the Wild, who finished with a 37-24 advantage in shots on goal.

‘‘It was like a dog chasing his tail,’’ coach Luke Richardson said. ‘‘We just couldn’t really muster too much together on offense, and then we couldn’t kill anything defensively. So [that led to] way too much time in the ‘D’-zone.’’

Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt, making only his second career NHL start, didn’t have to work very hard to earn his first career shutout for the Wild.

The Hawks have been shut out 13 times this season, including 10 times in their last 33 games. They still have a winning record since March 5, but they’ve slipped into a bad habit of not finding the net at all when they’re not in top form.

‘‘It wasn’t a lot of life out there,’’ defenseman Jaycob Megna said. ‘‘[It was] a lot different from last night [a 3-2 victory Saturday against the Stars], where I thought we battled really hard. Tonight, we just couldn’t get anything going.’’

Three-man success

The Hawks successfully killed off another five-on-three power play against them Saturday, and they’ve been quite effective in those scenarios this season.

They’ve allowed two goals in six instances of five-on-three power plays for their opponents, plus zero goals in two instances of four-on-three power plays for their opponents. In those scenarios, they also have allowed the third-fewest shot attempts per minute and seventh-fewest scoring chances per minute in the league.

Richardson said the Hawks’ five-on-three penalty-kill system is predicated on preventing the puck from going side-to-side across the ice, which would put their goalie well behind the shot.

‘‘We’re usually trying to play on the inside and try to take the threat out of the one-timer,’’ he said. ‘‘We want to push [the play] down into the strong-side corner. If they get a jam out of that . . . that’s great; everyone else will collapse and take the three options away.

‘‘We want to try to keep it on one side, if we can, and lock it down. You have the best players in the world out there, so it’s hard to do.’’

Opposite scenarios

The Hawks also have been fairly effective at converting their own five-on-three power plays, although their underlying statistics are less impressive.

They’ve converted three of six instances of five-on-three power plays, plus two of four instances of four-on-three power plays. They just haven’t had nearly as many opportunities as a team such as the Avalanche, who have enjoyed a combined 19. (The Hawks didn’t draw a power play of any kind Sunday.)

In those scenarios, the Hawks have produced the fifth-fewest shot attempts per minute and the seventh-fewest scoring chances per minute. They committed more time to practicing five-on-three scenarios in February and March, however, drawing up more set plays. One of them led to Nick Foligno’s goal March 19 against the Kings.