Following their opening night comeback win in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, the Chicago Blackhawks had little time to celebrate, as they visited the Boston Bruins for Boston’s season opener at TD Garden on Wednesday night. Arvid Soderblom started in net for the Hawks against the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, Linus Ullmark.
After the Hawks killed off an early Bruins power play, Connor Bedard scored the first goal of his career. Bedard skated in the offensive zone with the puck and made a behind-the-back pass to Ryan Donato, who fed it back to Bedard in the right circle. Bedard shot it from a near horizontal angle and Ullmark made the stop but left a rebound that Bedard retrieved and wrapped it around the open right side of the net for the goal. The Hawks had a 1–0 lead at the 5:37 mark of the first.
CONNOR BEDARD WITH HIS FIRST NHL GOAL 🥳🚨 pic.twitter.com/pQeHIDx7WO
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 11, 2023
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Trent Frederic tied it for the Bruins at 1–1 at 11:22 when he deflected a Brandon Carlo shot from the point. Rookie center Matthew Poitras set up the play and picked up his first career point on the goal. An entertaining first would end with the teams tied 1–1.
At 13:09 of the second, Milan Lucic skated in 2-on-1 and fed David Pastrnak in the right circle, who snapped one past Soderblom. The Bruins took a 2–1 lead and it would remain that way after 40 minutes.
The Bruins hung on to a 2–1 advantage for most of the third period. Pastrnak iced it with his second of the game into the Hawks’ vacated net with 58 seconds left to give the Bruins a 3–1 lead, which stood as final.
Analysis
For the second straight game, the Hawks received spectacular goaltending, which kept them in the game. Otherwise, this was a fairly one-sided affair. While Bedard flashed his high-end skill, the rest of the offense could not generate many chances. At one point, the Hawks were down to 10 forwards in the third with Taylor Hall exiting early in the second with an injury after a collision with Carlo, and Jason Dickinson missed half of the third while serving a 10-minute misconduct penalty after instigating a fight with John Beecher, who had just driven Cole Guttman into the boards from behind. With the Hawks playing the second game in as many nights, they began to wear down late as the Bruins dominated possession in the closing minutes. Rookie defender Wyatt Kaiser had another tough night, while Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic had fine, albeit unremarkable, showings.
The Hawks continue their season-opening road trip on Saturday night in Quebec against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. Puck drop is 6 p.m. CDT on NHL Network with the radio call on 720 WGN.