Goalie Petr Mrazek was blitzed on New Year's Eve. Chicago had nothing to celebrate in New Year's Eve stinker.
Connor Bedard was the slick-passing middleman on a nifty tic-tac-toe power-play goal by Philipp Kurashev 39 seconds into the third period at Dallas on Sunday.
Problem was: Dallas already had a five-goal lead when the Blackhawks finally connected.
The Blackhawks had nothing else to celebrate in an 8-1 loss to the Stars in Dallas on New Year's Eve. The Hawks, including Bedard, were simply left in the dust in a loss that matched an 8-1 disaster in Arizona on Oct. 30.
Bedard, the NHL's leading rookie scorer upped his totals to 15 goals and 33 points in 36 games with the assist. The 18-year-old center was narrowly stopped by Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood on a glorious chance in the first period, but Bedard also was a minus-3 in this one.
Stars Turned It On, Blackhawks Didn't
The swift-skating Stars simply pulled away from the Blackhawks starting midway through the first period. Dallas built a 3-0 lead after the opening frame as it outshot Chicago 17-6, then extended it to 5-0 in the second.
Petr Mrazek stopped 26 of 32 shots in his sixth start in seven games. But the 31-year-old Czech goalie saw a stream of prime chances. Arvid Söderblom relieved him after Roope Hintz's goal at 4:46 of the third made it 6-1.
Hintz had a hat trick, capped by an overtime score with 7.9 seconds left in overtime, in the Stars 5-4 win on Friday night.
"They upped their battle level from the other day and we kind of went the other direction," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. See video.
"That is really really disappointing," Blackhawks de facto captain Nick Foligno added. "We talked about how we were trending in the right direction. My only hope from a game like today is that we hammer it though our thick heads about how we need to play." See video.
More Injuries
Chicago forward Tyler Johnson was injured and left in the second period. "He'll be out probably for a little time," Richardson said.
The team was flying to Nashville and Johnson will be evaluated on Monday.
Söderblom Stretches
Söderblom stopped eight of 10 shots as Dallas didn't relent.
Dallas Scores
Stars winger Mason Marchment, son of late Chicago defenseman Bryan Marchment, had three goals and an assist. He completed his hat second career trick when he deflected a shot — that then ticked off defenseman Jarred Tinordi and past Söderblom with 1:04 left in the third.
Tyler Seguin posted a goal and and two assists. Sam Steel, Craig Smith, Hintz and 38-year-old defenseman Ryan Suter also connected for Dallas.
Smith opened the scoring 11:35 in on a screened deflection of Steel's shot.
Suter rushed down the ice and made it 2-0 with 2:44 left in the first on a shot that ticked off Kurashev's stick. Both Bedard and Foligno were caught up the ice on the play.
Seguin upped it to 3-0 just under 2 minutes later, tapping in a feed from Marchment. The goal capped a Dallas counter-attack and exploited confused Chicago D-zone coverage after Bedard turned over the puck over at center ice.
Steel lofted in a backhander on the fly over Mrazek's glove 3:43 into the second for a 4-0 Stars lead. Marchment fired in a power-play goal from the slot at 12:50 to make it 5-0.
After taking Cole Guttman's feed, Bedard slippped a cross-ice feed to Kurashev 39 seconds into the third to make it 5-1. The Stars finished it off with a goal by Hintz and two more by Marchment.