Blackhawks fall to Oilers despite strong defensive effort

The Blackhawks reached the halfway point of the season with a 2-1 loss Tuesday to the Oilers at the United Center.

Their 12-27-2 record is ugly, but their 27th regulation loss easily could have been their 13th victory. It was one of their better performances to date.

Oilers star Connor McDavid scored what turned out to be the winning goal 1:32 into the second period, but the Hawks controlled play the rest of the way. They finished with a 26-15 advantage in shots on goal, a season-best in terms of shots on goal allowed and a season low for the Oilers.

‘‘Anytime No. 97 is out there, with his speed, he just needs a second to be forgotten about,’’ Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. ‘‘Then he’s going to make something happen, and he did.

‘‘Other than that, we did a really good job of close-checking. We were frustrating them a couple of times, their good players. That’s good for us. We were playing the right way. We just couldn’t get that second goal.’’

In the third period, new forward Rem Pitlick hit the post, the Ryan Donato-led fourth line generated several chances and the six-on-five sequence during the final minutes was exhilarating. In the end, however, Jason Dickinson’s first-period goal was the Hawks’ only marker against Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.

Young defenseman Alex Vlasic, whose emergence as an unheralded star was a highlight of the first half, also shined in a difficult matchup against McDavid, who exploited veteran Jarred Tinordi on his goal. Vlasic clearly won the battle during his shared ice time with McDavid.

King still influential

Derek King has faded from the public consciousness during the 20 months since his tenure as the Hawks’ interim head coach ended, but he’s still very involved on Richardson’s staff as an assistant working primarily with the forwards.

‘‘I like my role; I like what I’m doing,’’ King said recently. ‘‘With Luke allowing me to do my thing, he’s not dictating who I should talk to or who I should work with. He just lets me be me.’’

The staff didn’t change at all from last season to this season, so everyone feels established in their roles at this point — King included. The demographics of the group he works with have changed significantly, however.

‘‘We’re a little younger now,’’ he said. ‘‘I know [the NHL is] not a development league, but you still have to teach kids the proper way of playing and help them and direct them in the right way.

‘‘They are, as we would say, ‘young and dumb.’ You have to get the ‘junior’ out of some of them and the ‘college’ out of them or what have you. But that’s the difference. Last year we had some veterans and middle-aged guys whose careers were already on the go, so it wasn’t as much the development part.’’

Attendance surging

The Hawks raked in huge crowds during the holiday season, as they always try to do. They drew at least 19,300 fans to the United Center for four consecutive games (against the Canucks, Avalanche, Canadiens and Jets) and eclipsed the 19,717 sellout mark in three of the four.

That pattern has continued into January, too. The Hawks drew 19,907 for their matinee Sunday against the Flames, a game marketed toward families and kids as part of the team’s ‘‘Best Day Ever’’ campaign, then drew 19,756 on Tuesday for their fifth consecutive sellout.

The McDavid vs. Connor Bedard storyline that likely attracted many fans to buy tickets ended up not materializing, and the ‘‘scan rate’’ — the percentage of distributed tickets that actually were used — looked lower than normal because of the snowy weather. But the arena was still largely full.

The Hawks’ average attendance through 19 home dates is 18,958, up 10.4% from last season and good for third in the NHL behind the Canadiens and Lightning.