Connor Bedard, Blackhawks Boxed Out By Big Golden Knights, Drop Fifth Straight, 3-1

Resurgent Petr Mrazek heroic again with 32 saves. Jason Dickinson scores 22nd goal to tie Bedard for team lead.

The Blackhawks and Petr Mrazek battled against the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

It turned out to be another close, but losing fight for Chicago. Vegas won 3-1 as the defending Stanley Cup champs continued to tune up for the playoffs with a solid physical effort.

Mrazek, probably the Blackhawks most valuable player this season, was outstanding again in his 53rd start, extending his career high. The 32-year-old stopped the first 20 Golden Knights shots and 32 for the game.

Chicago's Jason Dickinson scored his 22nd goal with 3:58 left in the third period to cut the Vegas lead to 2-1. Dickinson tied Connor Bedard for the team goal-scoring lead, allowing the Blackhawks to avoid being shut out an NHL-high 14th time.

Bedard, the NHL's leading rookie scorer, centered from behind the net to Dickinson for his 39th assist and 61st point in 67 games. Dickinson fired from about 15 feet out, then knocked in his own rebound.

With Mrazek pulled for an extra attacker, Nicolas Roy fired in an empty-netter with 1:36 left to ice it.

Bedard had only one shot on goal in the game and missed on two others. He leads NHL first-year players with 205 shots. That's also a Blackhawks team record for a rookie.

The Blackhawks put 24 shots on Logan Thompson, but simply needed to generate more prime chances and convert some.

Chicago defenseman Seth Jones, who skated a game-high 27:37 in this one, talks about it in the following video.

Vegas didn't get on the board until Brayden McNabb broke a scoreless tie with 3:35 left in the second period.

Mrazek stopped Pavel Dorofeyev's drive from the slot through a screen, but lost track of the rebound to his right. McNabb, a 6-foot-4, 215 pound stay-at-home defenseman, kept skating in, grabbed the puck and fired it home with spinning move as he tumbled to the ice.

Michael Amadio upped it to 2-0 at 7:13 of the third, taking advantage of a misplay by Frank Nazar III, skating in just his second NHL game. Amadio blocked Nazar's shot at the left point of the Vegas zone, then beat Nazar to the deflected puck along boards. 

Amadio moved in, fired from the right circle and beat Mrazek with a rising shot off the crossbar for his 14th goal.