Patrick Kane extends streak but Hawks lose to Wild

This wasn’t the way Patrick Kane wanted to extend his point streak.

Despite Kane extending his streak to 20 games with a second-period goal, the Blackhawks lost 2-1 on Tuesday night to the Minnesota Wild. Ryan Suter’s goal with 7:56 left in the game gave the Wild the lead, and made sure the Hawks were punished for an uneven performance in their first game back from the circus trip.

“It was a tough loss tonight,” Kane said.

It was, but Kane continued his run thanks to some luck the rest of his teammates could have used.

With 14:39 left in the second, Kane scored a power-play goal to tie the game. He got the puck in the right circle after a Duncan Keith takeaway and beat Devan Dubnyk (30 saves) between the goalie’s legs despite not making strong contact with the puck.

“It was a nice play by Duncs to pick the guy’s stick there and made a good pass to me and I just was trying to go high actually,” Kane said. “I kind of flubbed the shot. I was lucky it went in.”

Already the owner of the longest streak by an American-born player, Kane can tie Bobby Hull for the longest in Blackhawks history on Thursday in Ottawa and could set the mark by himself Sunday at the United Center against Winnipeg.

Kane was named the NHL’s first star for November after leading the league with 15 assists and 23 points. During the first period, Kane was honored by a video that started with a greeting from Ed Olczyk, who previously shared the record for American-born players with Phil Kessel.

“I think if you think about the 19-game point streak with being the most ever by an American, that’s pretty cool,” Kane said. “I mean, I’m not going to lie about that – that was pretty exciting.”

It’s been the type of run that gets those kind of moments, and praise from opposing teams.

“He’s a man on a mission. That’s for sure,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. “I think that he’s got good chemistry with his line, to see the way those guys are playing and the zone time he gets. He’s just been a difference maker, shift after shift.”

On Tuesday, that wasn’t enough to help the Hawks win their first game back at the United Center after going 3-1-2 on their six-game circus trip. And it wasn’t one of their best 60-minute efforts, whether or not it had anything to do with coming home.

“I don’t think it was our best game, for whatever reason,” Keith said. “At the end of the day we were right there with them and didn’t get the two points.”

The Hawks fell behind 1-0 with 15:51 left in the first when Jason Pominville jammed a loose puck past Corey Crawford (34 saves). Kane then evened the game but that was the highlight of the night for the Hawks, who fell behind 2-1 when Suter guided a rebound into the net. Crawford had made a sprawling save on Mikael Granlund but Suter beat Niklas Hjalmarsson to the puck and scored.

“When you’re tied in the third period and you’re at home and you’re in a pretty good spot,” coach Joel Quenneville said, “not getting anything is really tough.”