Connor Bedard broke out for a historical four-point night in the Blackhawks 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
Can the players’ moms always travel with the Blackhawks?
The Lightning struck first 3:20 into the game as Anthony Cirelli scored on the power play. It was Brandon Hagel with a good pass to Cirelli in the slot, who one-timed the puck to make it 1-0.
Connor Bedard responded for the Blackhawks just over a minute later, tying the game 1-1. Philipp Kurashev set up Bedard with a slick pass through the blue paint for the tap-in goal.
The Lightning regained the lead 12:31 into the opening frame. This time, Nikita Kucherov snuck behind the defense and shoveled in a Victor Hedman pass to put the Lightning up 2-1.
Luck seemed to be on the Blackhawks side the rest of the first period, though. Kevin Korchinski scored his first NHL goal to tie the game 2-2 after his shot deflected off Darren Raddysh’s skate and past Jonas Johansson.
The Blackhawks took the lead for the first time in the game with 2:23 remaining in the first period. Nick Foligno forced a turnover near center ice, creating a 2-on-0 rush opportunity, and Bedard setup Tyler Johnson with a backhand pass to make it 3-2.
The Blackhawks luck continued as Bedard got his second goal of the period to make it 4-2 with just eight seconds remaining. Johansson made the initial stop on Bedard’s backhand, but Cirelli knocked the puck in with his skate as he fell awkwardly.
The second period picked up where the first left off: with the Blackhawks scoring. While on the power play, Corey Perry tipped in a Connor Bedard shot to make it 5-2 Chicago lead a little over two minutes into the period.
Steven Stamkos scored with the extra attacker with 2:10 left in the game, but they couldn’t complete the comeback, and the Blackhawks defeated the Lightning 5-3.
Notes
- Maybe the Blackhawks’ moms are a lucky charm because there were more good bounces for the team from Chicago in the first period of this game than in the other games combined. Don’t get me wrong, the Blackhawks also worked hard in those moments too — forechecking, forcing turnovers, and more — but they were kind of dominated as a whole. They had just 28.95 percent of the shot attempts and 19.05 percent of the scoring chances at 5-on-5 but, again, credit the Blackhawks for not letting that fluster them and instead come out on top.
- The Blackhawks tightened up defensively after the first, though, allowing only eight shots on goal and two high-danger chances against at 5-on-5 in the last 40 minutes. The Lightning only really got traction on the power play and after they pulled the goalie.
- Everything on the Blackhawks first goal was wonderful: great forechecking effort by Kurashev and then an absolutely filthy pass to Bedard, and then kudos to Bedard for outmuscling the much, much larger Hedman. That’s what we want to see a lot more of from that duo. Here’s another look at the goal:
- And Bedard continues to make Blackhawks and NHL history:
- Korchinski really flexed his passing this game, even if none of them ended up as assists. There was one stretch pass to Connor Murphy in the third that was just a beaut, it’s a shame it didn’t result in a point, but I’m sure he’s consoling himself with his first NHL goal.
- After a slow start to the season, Wyatt Kaiser has quietly found his groove in recent games, and tonight showed some more flashes of the player we saw in college and training camp.
- The Old Guys like Foligno and Perry both showed tonight how they can still be useful players. They’re not the fastest or at the top of their games, but as long as they lead well and have games like these more often than not, then they’re good placeholders for this transition season. It was Foligno’s first three-point outing since October 2018.
- Seth Jones played nearly 32 minutes tonight, and while it wasn’t his best game ever, you have to acknowledge the workhorse effort he put in.
- The Blackhawks may have been lucky on the scoreboard, but they weren’t when it came to injuries as they lost Taylor Hall, Andrea Athanasiou, and Jarred Tinordi throughout the game. The Hall injury looked especially rough — how that wasn’t a penalty, I do not understand. There was no official update on any of these players post game but coach Luke Richardson said Hall looked better post game but they’d know more this weekend. In the postgame clip below from the locker room, though, Hall seemed to be moving well enough:
- Lukas Reichel wasn’t particularly noticeable this game outside of a shift here or there, though his main matchup was against Cirelli’s line, which is one of the best checking lines in the NHL. Prior to his injury in the third period, I was hoping that Hall would be moved up to the second line to give Reichel another skilled player to play with, but that doesn’t look like an option at the moment, unfortunately.
- Mrazek had another strong night, especially in the first period when the Lightning were really pouring it on. The team in front definitely helped more in the latter two periods, but the Czech netminder was big when needed, especially as he had another night in which he faced 33 shots.
- Here’s the full Lightning tribute video to Perry and his mom’s reaction to it:
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Connor Bedard (CHI) — 2 goals, 2 assists, making history
- Nick Foligno (CHI) — 3 assists
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — .909 save-percentage on 33 shots
What’s Next
The Blackhawks continue their Florida trip as they head to Sunrise to take on the Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday for a 12 p.m. CT start.