Colin Blackwell recorded his first career hat trick and Connor Bedard had two goals and an assist as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the visiting Arizona Coyotes 7-4 on Sunday.
Blackwell entered with five goals in 34 games this season, but helped fuel Chicago’s comeback from two goals down. He capped his career night with an empty-netter.
Meanwhile, Bedard posted his third game with at least three points and Seth Jones had four assists for the Blackhawks, who rode a four-goal, 22-shot second period to beat the Coyotes for the second time in six days — hours after becoming the first team officially eliminated from this season’s playoffs.
Coyotes star Clayton Keller scored twice and ex-Blackhawks player Nick Schmaltz had a goal and two assists. Arizona has allowed 17 goals while losing three of four.
Arizona struck 6:09 into the game when Keller sent a wrister past partially screened Chicago netminder Arvid Soderblom (32 saves). Keller put the Coyotes up 2-0 just 11 seconds into the second period off a nifty pass from Schmaltz.
However, the Blackhawks soon woke up.
Bedard put the puck in off the body of Arizona’s J.J. Moser at 5:28 of the second. Chicago tied it less than two minutes later when Blackwell flipped in the deflected shot of teammate Alex Vlasic.
On a five-on-three power play, Bedard eluded the stick of Arizona’s Josh Brown, then found an opening to beat goaltender Connor Ingram (34 saves) for the tiebreaker with 9:55 left in the second.
However, the Coyotes made it 3-3 with 6:03 left in the middle period when Dylan Guenther converted after the puck took a friendly carrom off the end board.
On the two-man advantage, though, Chicago regained the lead when Bedard sent a pass toward the side of the net for Tyler Johnson to one-time with 2:10 remaining in the second.
Again in the right spot, Blackwell extended Chicago’s lead 33 seconds into the third when he pushed in the rebound of Jones’ shot.
Arizona got within a goal 6:51 into the third when Schmaltz scored on a clearing attempt of his own shot.
However, Ryan Donato restored Chicago’s two-goal lead with 12 minutes left.
–Field Level Media
