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RECAP: Bedard’s first career hat trick leads Hawks past Ottawa 7-3

  
Connor Bedard scored his first career hat trick as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Ottawa Senators 7-3 at the United Center on Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks)

Following Sunday night’s 3-1 loss at the United Center to the Los Angeles Kings, the Chicago Blackhawks looked to bounce back on home ice when they hosted the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night as part of the NHL’s “Frozen Frenzy” slate where all 32 teams hit the ice. The Senators entered the game on a three-game winning streak, including a dominant 7-2 victory over the Boston Bruins at home on Monday night. The Hawks looked to take advantage of the Senators playing their second game in as many nights with Spencer Knight starting in goal against Linus Ullmark. The Hawks played this game without Ilya Mikheyev after taking a hard fall into the boards in their last game against the Kings.

First period

On a delayed penalty call, Colton Dach scored his first of the season to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. Louis Crevier shot the puck from the left point, which Ullmark stopped but left a big rebound to his right that Dach gathered and brought to the forehand and snapped in at the 6:47 mark. Nick Foligno picked up the secondary assist for his 600th career point.

Crevier made it 2-0 with a shot from the left half boards that went off an Ottawa defenseman and into the net. For Crevier, it was his second of the season at 12:06.

With the Hawks on the power play, Connor Bedard scored his fourth of the season to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead. Frank Nazar fed Andre Burakovsky, who skated to the right of Ullmark then made a diagonal pass to Bedard in the left circle, who sniped it under the crossbar at 17:53.

The Hawks would take a three-goal lead into the first intermission.

Second period

Following a successful penalty kill, Bedard scored his second of the game and fifth of the season with a highlight-reel coast-to-coast rush. Bedard skated with the puck from in front of his own net then entered the Ottawa zone 1-on-3, toe-dragged and fired a wrist shot from the slot at 2:58 to give Chicago a 4-0 lead.

Ottawa got on the board with a goal by Jake Sanderson at 4:56 to cut the deficit to 4-1. Sanderson fired a shot from the point that missed the net but ricocheted in front and went in off the back of Knight’s catching glove and into the net. For Sanderson, it was his second of the season.

The Sens inched closer when Michael Amadio scored his second of the season at the 7:07 mark. Amadio battled Wyatt Kaiser behind the net and broke free and skated alone in front, turned around and fired a shot top shelf to make it 4-2. Amadio took advantage of a miscommunication between Kaiser and Artyom Levshunov to cut the Chicago lead in half.

Ottawa made it 4-3 when Tim Stutzle made a nice move around Kaiser in the neutral zone and skated in and fired a wrist shot past Knight for his fifth of the season at 8:31. The Hawks challenged for offside but the goal was upheld. The Hawks would take a one-goal lead into the second intermission.

Third period

Bedard scored his first career hat trick and his sixth of the season to give the Hawks a 5-3 lead. Ryan Greene won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly back to Bedard, who fired a wrist shot over Ullmark’s glove and under the crossbar at the 3:46 mark.

Ryan Donato made it 6-3 with his sixth goal of the season at 8:24. Bedard skated in on the right wing side and his shot attempt was deflected right to Donato in the slot and he buried it into an open net.

With Ottawa on a power play and their net empty, Nazar skated out of the zone on a breakaway and got tripped, but was still able to score his fifth of the season at 12:44 to give Chicago a 7-3 lead, which would hold at the final horn.

Analysis

The Blackhawks finally took advantage of a team on its second of back-to-back games, but the outcome was certainly in doubt in the second period. With Ottawa scoring three quick goals to cut the Hawks’ lead to 4-3 and heading to the power play following a failed coach’s challenge, the Hawks killed off the Ottawa man advantage and regained momentum heading into the second intermission. That led to the third period, which the Hawks dominated and added three goals to pad their lead.

The Hawks begin a six-game road trip on Thursday night in Winnipeg where they’ll face their former captain and three-time Stanley Cup champion, Jonathan Toews, for the first time since his return to the NHL. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. CDT on CHSN with the radio call on 720 AM WGN.

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