Alex DeBrincat scored twice, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves for the Blackhawks (1-8-2), who were coming off their first win of the season, 5-1 against the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
Carolina killed a four-minute Chicago power play after defenseman Ethan Bear received a double minor for high-sticking at 14:34 of the third period. The Hurricanes had killed two minor penalties earlier in the third.
"That was obviously the game," Brind'Amour said. "We were eight minutes [shorthanded] in the third period. That's way too much to give that team. They had their looks. The goalie was good; Freddie made some saves. We had some huge blocks. That was obviously the crucial point of the game. Came up big."
Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said the Hurricanes penalty kill made it difficult.
"The way they kill, it really scrambles things," he said. "You're not going to be able to do everything you want to do out there. You're not going to be able to control the play, and you have to kind of take what they give and find a way to win some loose pucks and battles.
"The fact that the power plays were kind of stacked up worked against us. If they're spread throughout the game, maybe it's a little bit easier. But that's not why we lost the game, so I think let's not get distracted by that."
DeBrincat scored at 1:35 of the first period to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. He took a pass from Patrick Kane at the Carolina blue line, skated in alone, and put the puck past the stick of Andersen.
Derek Stepan tied it 1-1 at 6:25, scoring from in front of the net off a pass from Tony DeAngelo.
Kane gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at 2:49 of the second period when he tipped Riley Stillman's shot from the left point.
DeBrincat made it 3-1 at 8:24, scoring from the left circle off a feed from Philipp Kurashev after Mike Hardman made a pass while falling to the ice following a Hurricanes turnover just outside the blue line.
"We had good spots," DeBrincat said. "We were up 3-1. We have to find a way to win that game. We just have to battle hard for the full 60 [minutes]. We let up for a couple of minutes there, and there were a couple in our net. [We] have to figure out how to hold a lead."
