Hawks' losing streak hits nine

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No doubt looking for a little luck, coach Joel Quenneville wore a tie with shamrocks and four-leaf clovers on it as the Blackhawks sought to end their mind-numbing losing skid.

What's next, a shirt with lucky horseshoes?

Make it nine consecutive defeats for the Hawks after they fell to the host Predators 3-2 on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. Despite putting together one of their more solid efforts of this nine-game trip, all the Hawks came away with was more frustration as they dropped their 11th consecutive contest away from home overall and fell to 0-6-1 on their current season-long trek.

Ryan Ellis' goal at the 14-minute, 18-second mark of the third period was the game-winner as the Hawks remained on a course that has them threatening the all-time franchise futility mark of 12 consecutive losses in 1951. The Predators' winning score came on a long shot that deflected off Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith and slipped through the pads of goaltender Ray Emery.

"It's going to sound like an old song, but we really battled," said Hawks winger Marian Hossa, who tied the score 2-2 early in the third with a wrist shot that beat netminder Pekka Rinne and put the Hawks in position to break out of their funk. "We did lots of good things, spent lots of time in their zone and at the end one redirected puck ended up in our net. That hurts."

Ryan Suter and Nick Spaling also scored to help the Predators move seven points ahead of the Hawks in fifth place in the Western Conference. In addition to Hossa's score, Bryan Bickell had a goal for the Hawks but it wasn't enough as Emery saw his personal losing streak reach four.

"This was a tough loss," Quenneville said. "If you look at the stretch we've had here, we've had different ways to find a way not to come out on top but (Tuesday night) looked like we were doing the things we wanted to do and we were in the right direction."

Perhaps most disheartening for the Hawks was suffering a loss in a game during which they played well.

"We were playing the way we were supposed to," Emery said in an eerily quiet postgame dressing room. "We tie it up and have a lot of momentum going for us and they get that one with less than 10 minutes left. You have to stop the trend somewhere. I really have to stop that."

It doesn't get any easier for the Hawks as they face a Rangers team that has the most points in the Eastern Conference on Thursday night in New York.

"We still have to build off what we achieved (Tuesday night) and go into New York with the same type of attitude," Quenneville said. "We had more urgency in our game and more purpose. That's what it's going to take to get out of it."