Connor Bedard's Hat Trick Powers A Blackhawks Victory On Frozen Frenzy Night
CHICAGO - The NHL Frozen Frenzy took place across North America on Tuesday night. For the Chicago Blackhawks, that meant hosting the Ottawa Senators at the United Center.
Once again, the Blackhawks were playing a team in the second half of a back-to-back. The last two times (vs the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings) didn’t go so well for Chicago, as they came out looking like the rested team but let a lead slip away.
The game started with an early goal for Colton Dach, who scored his first goal of the season off a Louis Crevier rebound. Just under six minutes later, Louis Crevier scored to make it 2-0 Blackhawks. Crevier is not known for his high-end offensive contributions, but throwing pucks on net led to goals for Chicago early in this one.
Before the first period could end, Connor Bedard scored on the power play to make it 3-0. Andre Burakovsky, who was added to the first unit ahead of this game, made a perfect cross-ice pass to Bedard, who sniped one.
Just 2:58 into the second period, Connor Bedard scored his second of the game and fifth of the season. At 4-0, it seemed like the Blackhawks were over the issues that plagued them against teams playing a back-to-back.
Nothing is ever as it seems. Things became a little scary for the Blackhawks as the second period went along. The Ottawa Senators scored three unanswered goals in five minutes to make it a one-goal game. At that point, it looked like the Hawks were going to let another lead slip away to a team that should be much less rested than them.
Chicago managed to reach the second intermission with a lead, which was exactly what they needed. Connor Bedard completed his first career hat trick at 3:46 of the third period to make it a 5-3 Blackhawks lead.
Bedard wasn’t done collecting points there, though, as he set up a Ryan Donato goal later in the third. A short-handed empty net goal for Frank Nazar sealed the deal for a 7-3 Blackhawks win.
Spencer Knight made 21 saves on 24 shots, which isn’t his usual dominance, but he did what he needed to do for the Blackhawks to win. In particular, he held the fort when Ottawa was pushing to tie in the second period.
The Blackhawks are now 5-3-2 through their first 10 games of the season, which is a much better start than anybody anticipated.
Flyers beat Penguins in a shootout after two goals get overturned in a wild overtime
The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Penguins, 3-2, in a shootout at Xfinity Mobile Arena. But the story Tuesday night was what happened in overtime.
Both teams appeared to score walk-off winners in a wild 3-on-3 session. The Flyers actually started heading to their dressing room before they were summoned back.
Then, as they are wont to do, a few players from the Penguins and Flyers wrestled on the ice, giving rookie Penguins coach Dan Muse his first taste of the bitter rivalry.
Throw in a power play for each side and, well, Erik Karlsson can take it from here...
“Yeah, it was crazy,” the defenseman said of the heart-pumping overtime period.
The Penguins on Tuesday were trying to do something they have never done in this longstanding rivalry, winning here in Philadelphia when trailing after two periods. Sidney Crosby scored midway through the third to extend the game into overtime.
Evgeni Malkin beat Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson early in overtime, but that goal was quickly waved off because Malkin left the bench too soon as the Penguins tried to pull their goalie on a delayed penalty. Muse said officials made the right call there.
The Flyers thought they had won in overtime when Tyson Foerster scored with 24.4 seconds left, but an official video review showed the Flyers clearly skated in offside.
The game somehow got even more chaotic as the buzzer sounded at the end of OT.
Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea and Noel Acciari threw down with Trevor Zegras and a couple other Flyers as overtime concluded. The shootout was delayed so the officials could pry them apart and sort out the penalties. For some reason, Crosby was assessed a game misconduct, which made Crosby ineligible for the shootout.
ESPN’s cameras appeared to show Muse telling the officials, “You’re wrong. You’re wrong.” He was mum after the game when asked what explanation he was given.
“I’ll just leave that between me and the refs. I’ll keep quiet on that one,” he replied.
The game went to a shootout, where Bobby Brink scored the winner for the Flyers.
Despite that result, Pittsburgh earned three of four points in its first back-to-back.
For the fourth straight game, the Penguins got the first goal. Justin Brazeau scored off the rush. The Flyers tied it later in the first period with a Brink power-play tally.
The home team took the lead 2:46 into the second on a goal from Travis Konecny.
The Flyers had the Penguins on their heels for a while after that, but despite them peppering Arturs Silovs, they could not pad their lead. The Penguins started to push back in the third period and tied the score, 2-2, with Crosby’s latest goal in Philly.
It was over when...
Ersson stopped Ville Koivunen on the Penguins’ final shootout attempt. The Flyers won the shootout, 2-1. It was the second straight one Silovs and the Penguins lost.
Stat of the game
3 — straight losses for the Penguins here in Philly with four losses in their last five.
Around the boards
• The Penguins recalled Owen Pickering before the game and had the 21-year-old defenseman in their lineup against the Flyers. He skated on the third pair alongside Matt Dumba. That duo spent much of the game spinning around in their own zone. Pickering had a 38.7 expected goals percentage at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick.
• Pittsburgh scratched young defenseman Harrison Brunicke for the third time in the last four games. The other scratches were Philip Tomasino and Connor Clifton.
• Silovs got the start as the Penguins continue to alternate their two goalies in the season’s first month. He likely laments that Konecny goal, but he made a few tough saves the rest of the way to keep the visitors in it. He stopped 34 shots in the loss.
• Crosby has now scored 57 goals against the Flyers, his most against any one team.
• Prior to his goal, it was a rough night for Crosby and the top line in Philadelphia. Per usual, Crosby was booed nearly every time he touched the puck. And the trio of Crosby, Bryan Rust and Filip Hallander fired only one shot through two periods.
• The Penguins entered the night with one of the NHL’s top power plays, but they struggled in Philadelphia. Not only did they generate next to no good looks on their four power plays, they gave up a few shorthanded chances to the Flyers. More than once, the Penguins’ failures woke up the fans and flipped momentum to the Flyers.
• Dumba got his first Penguins point with a secondary assist on Brazeau’s goal. He also took two bad penalties, one of which led to Brink’s power-play tally in the first.
