ANAHEIM—The third shutout in six days occurred at the Honda Center where the tide of success began to falter. The Ducks offense was stopped by the Chicago defense and goaltender Corey Crawford ending in a 2-0 loss Wednesday. Marian Hossa and Captain Jonathan Towes scored to win their second shutout of the season.

After sweeping Los Angeles two games this year, the plan was to do the same to the Ducks who lost 4-2 at the United Center last month. Anaheim made an effort to stave from that idea by controlling the first period gaining 15 shots on goal. The contribution was helped late in the first period with a five on three chance, where the Ducks took the opportunity to break ahead on Crawford. The more shots Anaheim took, the Blackhawks favored on blocked shots, as the team kept a screen on the man to man defense so tight that Crawford saw little action.

The same couldn’t be said for Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller who was caught off guard in the first minute of the second. Marian Hossa made a stretch pass to Patrick Sharp that gave the Slovakian time to get ahead of the Anaheim defense and have the puck returned for his 24th of the season. The Ducks only bright spot was that their pace of the game was subpar to their holding off unnecessary penalties. Instead, the Blackhawks gave another pair of power plays to their opponents, but saw no strong action on either as they held Anaheim to eight shots while continuing to record blocked shots.

It was only the second time this season that the Blackhawks had to hold a 1-0 lead going into the third period and the third period only showed that Chicago’s puck possession did not slip up. The Blackhawks took seven shots on Hiller with Jonathan Towes scoring with Hossa on the play. Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler tried to clear the puck out of the Ducks end when he miss fired giving Hossa the short pass instead to set up the Chicago captain with his 19th.

The Ducks pulled Hiller from the net to go for the sixth man with 90 seconds left in regulation. Their pace became hurried leaving no time to set up a shot while Chicago’s defense held their ground and the Ducks to another disappointing shutout at home. Crawford shared the team lead with Antti Raanta, as both goaltenders have a shutout with Crawford making 29 saves on the night.

Hiller now has four losses in his last five games, stopping 23 of 25 against the Blackhawks with no time to rest, as he prepares to be in net for the Swiss national team in Sochi. Before he can enjoy international competition a final game on the road against the Predators comes at a time where the Ducks could lose their entire lead on the conference or their division.

By Rudy Martinez