Flames hand Blackhawks ugly defeat

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Hawks enforcer John Scott (left) and Tom Kostopoulos mix it up in the second period Friday. | Larry macdougal~AP

Updated: December 20, 2011 8:11AM

CALGARY, Alberta — The Blackhawks aren’t going to look like world-beaters every game. They’ll have their off games and make some poor plays. And they’ll be put on their heels by opponents at times.

Like Friday against the Calgary Flames.

Still, an ugly victory wasn’t even a possibility for the Hawks as the Flames made them pay for their mistakes and received good games from some of their top players in Calgary’s 5-2 victory at the Saddledome.

“Some nights you don’t have to score five or six goals to win hockey games,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “It’s a 1-1 hockey game [after the first period]. We can win 2-1; we can win 3-2; we can go to overtime. I don’t think we have to think we have to score five or six to be effective.”

Curtis Glencross had two goals and an assist to lead the Flames as they put an end to the Hawks’ four-game winning streak. Corey Crawford allowed five goals on 26 shots, including three on eight in a tough second period.

Quenneville characterized all five goals as “generous” and “defendable.”

Defenseman Duncan Keith, who was a minus-4 and was beaten on a nice move by Lee Stempniak for the game’s first goal, was ready to take the heat after the loss.

“It seemed like every goal was a play we could have been better at,” said Keith, who was a force in their four-game streak. “I’d like to have that first one back.

“We weren’t good enough in all areas. . . . I know I can be a lot better and lead that way. It starts on the back end with myself.”

With the Hawks coming off a rout of the Vancouver Canucks a game earlier, the matchup in Calgary had some “trap game” qualities. They even said beforehand that they couldn’t take the Flames, who had lost three of four coming in, lightly at all.

But in many ways — whether it was Crawford allowing a goal to Rene Bourque on a shot he typically stops, the Hawks’ defense letting less-than-stellar passes go through or just turning the puck over — the Hawks looked out of sorts. Winger Ben Smith was a minus-2 in his debut after being recalled from the Rockford IceHogs.

“Maybe we thought we were better than we were going into today’s game or looking for an easy game,” Quenneville said.

The Flames made it 3-1 with two goals in 17 seconds less than a minute into the second as Crawford allowed Bourque’s goal and Paul Byron knocked in a bouncing turnover.

Marian Hossa made it 3-2 with a 4-on-3 power-play goal, but Glencross scored twice after that. Miikka Kiprusoff (30 saves) did fend off some good chances by the Hawks, who were without defenseman Brent Seabrook (leg) and winger Michael Frolik (shoulder).

“You’re going to run into a team that’s [angry] and eager to get better like Calgary, and things won’t be easy for you,” said Jonathan Toews, who had two assists. “We kind of made it easy for them by the turnovers and little mistakes we made.

‘‘Sometimes you’re not playing as well as you can, and you just have to limit those things and try to hang in there. We didn’t do that.”