CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks have responded whenever they’ve been poked in the chest throughout this year’s playoffs.

When the Nashville Predators did so in the opening round, the Blackhawks came right back at them. When the Anaheim Ducks did so in the Western Conference finals, the Blackhawks didn’t back down.

There wasn’t once during the first three rounds the Blackhawks weren’t victorious after having lost their previous game. The Tampa Bay Lightning changed that Monday night.

The Lightning have now poked the Blackhawks twice in the chest without getting a response. The Lightning followed their Game 2 home victory by beating the Hawks 3-2 on the United Center ice in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals.

“I thought we did some good things tonight, but you got to give them credit,” Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane said. “They’re here for a reason. It seems like when their backs are against the wall they play pretty well, too. We’ve been in situations before where we’ve been able to come through, so we’ll draw on those past experiences and try to relay into our next game.”

The Blackhawks haven't been challenged in this way during this postseason, but they do have some past experience with it. They were in nearly this same situation in 2013. They defeated the Boston Bruins at home in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, then lost the next two games to fall behind 2-1 in the series. The Blackhawks responded with three consecutive wins to take the Stanley Cup.

The hardest part for the Blackhawks to swallow about Monday's loss was they actually felt they should have won the game.

The Blackhawks accomplished a lot of the things they set out to do Game 3. For one, they owned the puck in the opening period and outshot the Lightning 19-7 on net -- after managing just 21 shots on net in Game 1. What the Blackhawks lacked, though, was finish. Brad Richards was the lone player to capitalize with a goal in the first period. The most memorable miss was Marian Hossa shooting the puck wide on an open net while he was being tripped.

“Puck came up to me and I know the goalie tried to challenge it,” Hossa said. “I tried to fake a shot and cut in the middle and basically, when I tried to raise the puck, somehow I tripped and the puck slipped funny and somehow I missed the net.”

Hossa made up for it in the third period when he threaded the puck to Brandon Saad in the slot, and Saad put the Blackhawks ahead 2-1 at 4 minutes, 14 seconds of the frame. But before Blackhawks fans were even done celebrating, the Lightning had tied the game 13 seconds later. The Lightning pulled ahead for good with a goal by Cedric Paquette with 3:11 to play.

The Blackhawks also took a 2-1 lead in Game 2, but saw that disappear in less than two minutes.

"It's a great play, a great goal; all of a sudden you get momentum," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Saad's score. "Two games we had the lead, but short-lived both times. Two tough losses in a row."

From creating all the chances to withstanding being without Johnny Oduya for nearly half of the second period to killing off a five-on-three power play for 1:26 to taking the lead in the third period, the Blackhawks weren’t exactly sure how they let the game slip from their grasp.

“It’s frustrating,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “A lot of things we did today gave us the feeling we were going to come out on top with the effort we gave. It was just a couple of little bad habits that ended up hurting us. We are responsible for that, but I think this game could have been similar to the way we stole Game 1 from them.

“I feel like we had a lot of chances, especially early in the game. Late in the game, we gave up those odd-man rushes. We’ve been talking about that and they ended up in the back of the net. We’ll improve in that area and use it as motivation to find that anger or emotion that we need to bounce back in the next one.”

And that’s where the Blackhawks’ focus turned quickly to after the game. They know how big Game 4 has become.

“This one hurts a little bit tonight, but we’ll just focus on winning a game and making it a best-of-three,” Richards said. “That’s all you can ever ask for.”