Bedard Has a Goal and Assist to Lead Blackhawks Over Avalanche

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The Chicago Blackhawks got a goal and an assist from Connor Bedard in a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche, as Petr Mrazek had 36 saves to lead the Hawks to the victory.

Juuso Parssinen opened the scoring when he flipped a backhand past Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek. It was Parssinen’s first goal as a member of the Avalanche, whom the team acquired in late December from the Nashville Predators.

Ilya Mikheyev evened the score for the Blackhawks with a goal with just over three minutes left in the first period. Bedard recorded an assist on the goal and extended his point streak to eight games. This tied Patrick Kane (65) for the second-most assists by a teenager in Blackhawks history behind Eddie Olczyk (80).

Frank Nazar buried a rebound into the net midway through the second period, his first goal of the season, to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead. Colton Dach had an assist on the play and picked up his first career NHL point. After having a goal negated by a review, Bedard scored midway through the third period to give the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead.

Goaltender Trent Miner made his first career NHL start for the Avalanche. It was his second appearance in the NHL. His debut came in November when he stopped 12 of 13 shots in a relief effort against the Washington Capitals.

Chosen by the Avalanche in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Draft, Miner has spent much of the past four seasons with the Colorado Eagles, the Avalanche’s affiliate in the American Hockey League. Through 16 outings with the Eagles this season, he has posted an 8-5-3 record with a .903 save percentage and a 2.47 goals-against average.

In this game, Bedard became the first Canadian teenager to post a point streak of at least eight games since Nathan MacKinnon in 2013-14 (13 GP). Only two other active Canadian skaters have posted a run of that length as teenagers: Steven Stamkos (18 GP & 8 GP in 2009-10) and Sidney Crosby (10 GP in 2006-07, 10 GP in 2005-06 & 8 GP in 2006-07).

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