Petr Mrazek Makes 42 Saves, Chicago Dominates Dallas 3-2 | 4/6/2024

Blackhawks lineup against the Stars:

Bedard – Dickinson – Kurashev

Foligno – Johnson – Anderson

Reichel – Athanasiou – Blackwell

Slaggert – Entwistle – Donato

Vlasic – Jones

Korchinski – Megna

Tinordi – Kaiser

Mrazek

Soderblom

   After a scoreless first period, the Blackhawks went on to begin the scoring in the middle frame. Three goals were scored by the Hawks while the Stars scored one, moving on to the third where Chicago finished off with a 3-2 victory.

   Connor Bedard opened the scoring early in the second at 15:12 with his 22nd goal of the season to record his 59th NHL career point (22 goals, 37 assists). He sent a wrister past Scott Wedgewood on the power play where Nick Foligno provided a screen after Bedard had collected the puck at the right point, skating into the right face-off circle. Soon after Bedard’s goal at 14:07, Andreas Athanasiou struck his first of the season to push it to 2-0 when he received a drop pass from Lukas Reichel, who skated into the zone, and Athanasiou scored from the left circle with a wrist shot. Seth Jones increased Chicago’s lead to 3-0 at 11:09 of the middle frame at the left circle, scoring to the far side, after he took Ryan Donato’s cross-crease pass. Later on in the second, Roope Hintz stuck in his 29th goal of the season to pull the Stars within 3-1. Hintz struck in the low slot with a tip of a shot from the left circle by Miro Heiskanen.

   With Connor Bedard’s goal to start it off in the second, it ended a stretch of 1:77:08 where Dallas hadn’t allowed a goal… They had been coming off from back-to-back shutouts, both against the Edmonton Oilers (5-0, Wednesday) and the Seattle Kraken (3-0, Saturday). The Stars outshot Chicago 23-5 in the middle frame.

   Jamie Benn cut it to 3-2 late into the third at 4:23 for his 20th goal of the season when he tipped in Miro Heiskanen’s shot.

Connor Bedard on their victory against the Stars and his goal: “It’s big. It’s been a tough year with our record and everything, but it shows a lot about our group that we’re sticking with it. We’re still trying to get better every day and to see some results here in the last little bit is great for us,” – “It feels like I’m on the schneid a lot, so whenever you score one, it’s nice. It’s not easy to put them in, so it definitely feels good.”

Mavrik Bourque on his first NHL game, facing the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, and the loss against the Blackhawks: “It felt good. I’ve been waiting for that for a while and to get the first one was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, you always want to win in your first game, but it’s part of it,” – “It’s a huge one so, hopefully, we’re going to bounce back here – I think their goalie is pretty good. We had a lot of chances, and they were more fortunate than us. We fought until the end.”

Notes:

– Miro Heiskanen recorded two assists, and Scott Wedgewood made a total of 14 saves for Dallas.

– Connor Bedard had gone a total of seven games without a goal. He last scored on the 17th of March in a 5-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks.

   Bedard scored his seventh game-opener in the NHL, which makes him pass both Denis Savard and Murray Balfour for the most by a rookie in Blackhawks history. His 22 goals are also marked as the third most by an 18-year-old in the past 10 years… Bedard is behind Patrik Laine (36) and Nathan MacKinnon (24).

– Mavrik Bourque made his NHL debut after he had been called up from the Texas Stars on Friday. He had two shots on goal and was 2-for-6 on face-offs in 10:19 of ice time. Bourque had been leading the AHL with 72 points in 66 games (26 goals, 46 assists).

  Bourque was in place of Tyler Seguin, who is expected to play on Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche. Seguin had been managing an upper-body injury, which caused him to miss 11 games.