The ice at the United Center was a battleground Wednesday night, January 8th, but the Blackhawks emerged triumphant, defeating the Avalanche 3-1 in a thrilling display of grit and determination. Colorado mounted a strong challenge, but Chicago’s skill and determination ultimately prevailed in a 3-1 win. Connor Bedard continued his point streak with a two-point night, scoring a goal and adding an assist, while Frank Nazar found the back of the net with his first NHL goal of the season, and Petr Mrazek stood tall, making 35 crucial saves to shut down the Avalanche. Ilya Mikheyev scored the game-tying goal, and Juuso Parssinen scored for Colorado with his first goal since being acquired by the Avalanche in a trade with the Nashville Predators on December 28th. The Blackhawks head out on the road to Detroit to take on Patrick Kane and the Red Wings on Friday, and the Avalanche will continue their road trip on Thursday, heading to Minnesota to take on the Wild.
Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:
Bertuzzi – Bedard – Mikheyev
Hall – Dickinson – Foligno
Dach – Nazar – Teravainen
Donato – Reichel – Smith
Kaiser – Jones
Vlasic – Crevier
Allan – Brodie
Mrazek
Soderblom
Colorado Avalanche Lineup:
Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Colton – Mittelstadt – Innala
Kiviranta – Kelly – O’Connor
Felhaber – Parssinen
Toews – Makar
Girard – Manson
de Haan – Malinski
Middleton
Miner
Blackwood
Juuso Parssinen opened the scoring, unassisted, to put the Avalanche ahead 1-0 early into the first period with 13:46 on the clock. After collecting the puck in the defensive zone, he raced down the right wing, lifting a backhand shot over Petr Mrazek’s glove while holding off Lukas Reichel from the right face-off circle. Later into the opening frame, Ilya Mikheyev struck for his eighth goal of the season with 3:12 left to play after the puck popped out from the left side when Connor Bedard broke up a left corner pass from Samuel Girard. Mikheyev collected the puck, skated in, and fired a forehand shot past Trent Miner to tie it up 1-1.
Frank Nazar lit the lamp for his first NHL goal of the season at 9:43 of the second period. Teuvo Teravainen, who carried the puck into the offensive zone, sent it over to Colton Dach, who shot and it bounced away, and Nazar picked it up and scored on the rebound of Dach’s shot. Not long after the second Hawks’ tally, Bedard’s apparent goal was overturned with 7:39 on the clock after a video review, which determined that Bedard put the puck past Trent Miner on a rebound with a distinct kicking motion. With 21 seconds left to play in the middle frame, MacKinnon’s best chance to score to tie it up came on a rebound, however, Petr Mrazek made sure to not let it get past him when he stuck out his right pad to make the save.
Scoring for real this time, Connor Bedard took a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi and found the back of the net for his second point of the night with 8:06 remaining in regulation from the right circle for the 3-1 final.
Frank Nazar on his first NHL goal of the season and the 3-1 victory: “Yeah, it feels really good. Just to be able to get that win too is a big part of it. Obviously, a goal doesn’t really mean much if we don’t get that win.”
Not only did Nazar pick up his first NHL goal of the season, but it was announced on Wednesday by the Rockford IceHogs that he was named an AHL All-Star. He has played 21 games in the AHL so far this season with a total of 24 points; 11 goals and 13 assists.
Connor Bedard on scoring after having his first “goal” disallowed in the second period: “It’s always nice to get one back if one gets called off. I didn’t know, it was kind of 50/50, so it was good to kind of erase it a little bit.”
Cale Makar on the Avalanche performance, capitalizing, and Trent Miner: “I felt like we had a lot of chances tonight, it just seemed at times that our execution wasn’t there, whether it was through the neutral zone or D-zone. Also, just letting them get to the line easily a couple of times resulted in goals. …We got to find ways to capitalize, and we got to find ways to help Mines back there, too. I thought he played incredible tonight. It’s unfortunate we could only put one in for him because I think he deserved to win back there.”
Notes:
– With his goal and assist, Connor Bedard extended his point streak to eight games. …For the second-most assists by a teenager in Blackhawks history, Bedard tied Patrick Kane (65). Eddie Olczyk (80) is in first place. …Bedard has also tied both Olczyk (1985-86) and Bobby Hull (1957-58) for the third-longest point streak in their team’s history. In 2007-08, Jonathan Toews had a 10-game point streak, and Olczyk had a nine-game streak in 1985-86.
– Hawks: 14-25-2 … Chicago has lost six of seven.
– Trent Miner made a total of 17 saves in his first NHL career start for Colorado.
– The Avalanche were 7-0-1 in their previous eight games.
– Both Mikko Rantanen (14-game) and Nathan MacKinnon (eight-game) point streaks were put to an end.
– The Avalanche played without Jonathan Drouin due to an upper-body injury. However, he did participate in the morning skate. …Jared Bednar had said he is hopeful Drouin can play against Minnesota on Thursday.
ITR 26: 2 Nations Fighting – Inside The Rink
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