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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It will show as a 3-2 loss, but it was not because the effort level and chances weren’t there Thursday night. The Chicago Blackhawks just came up one goal short of what James Neal put on the scoreboard for the Nashville Predators. Those scoring chances were there, particularly in the third period, when the Blackhawks put 17 shots on Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne. “It’s early in the season, but we know every division game is important, it doesn’t matter who we play,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “It’s a tough one to let it slip away. We wanted to play that tough, simple, hard-nosed road game tonight. I think we did that, like I said, at times, and we just didn’t score enough to win the game.” The Blackhawks entered Thursday averaging a league-high 40.6 shots on goal per game. Even with the third-period push, they managed just 32 against the Predators. Neal’s natural hat trick paced the Predators, who along with the Blackhawks entered the game as the only teams in the NHL yet to suffer a regulation loss this season. Chicago scored the game’s first goal for the fifth time in six contests, but unlike on the previous four occasions, could not come out with the victory, thanks in large part to a couple of big momentum goals from Neal. “It’s always different playing home and road games, so of course the home team is coming a little bit harder always,” Blackhawks goaltender Antti Raanta said. “We lost a couple of pucks so they got a couple chances from there, and they were pretty good when they got the chances.” With just under 48 seconds remaining in the first period, Neal tied the game 1-1, but it was his second goal which really hurt the Blackhawks. Chicago was awarded its only power play of the game at 13 minutes, 7 seconds of the second period, and spent nearly the entire two minutes inside Nashville’s zone. During the sequence, the Blackhawks recorded three shots on goal, saw two miss the target and another two blocked by the Predators. After the penalty to Mattias Ekholm expired, Chicago managed another shot and another blocked attempt before Nashville was able to ice the puck and use its lone timeout to rest weary players. “You try to limit as much as you can putting the other team on the power play and hope that you can get through the penalty kill,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought our guys did an unbelievable job. You see them sacrificing their body and blocking shots. Some of the saves Pekka made, he just got better as the game went on.” Less than a minute after that timeout, Neal gave the Predators a 2-1 lead with a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot that beat Raanta on the far side. “That’s two minutes' zone time, we definitely did everything, icing at the end of it. Lot of good things on it,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was a big goal ... a big goal.” Prior to Thursday, the Blackhawks hadn't had fewer than four power plays in a game this season. Neal, the talented winger acquired in a draft-day trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, finished the hat trick with a score at 1:52 of the third period. “Coming to a new team and everything, you want to do so well,” Neal said. “You’ve just got to wait for your chances and I think everything kind of fell into place tonight.” Andrew Shaw's goal at 12:36 of the third drew the Blackhawks within one, but they could not find the equalizer. Quenneville pulled Raanta in favor of an extra attacker with just under 1:30 remaining. As with their lone power play, the Blackhawks had extended zone time while skating 6-on-5, but they managed to get only two shots through on Rinne.
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