Anders Sorensen - Jan. 7 Chicago Blackhawks Media Availability CHICAGO - For a lot of this season, the Chicago Blackhawks have played well against teams in good spots for the standings. Many of their bad losses have come against teams in the bottom half of the league. With the red-hot Colorado Avalanche (8-1-1 in their last 10) coming to Chicago for a match, you had to wonder if the Hawks would be able to put forth a good effort against a team they've beaten already once this year. It didn't start great which is unusual for the Blackhawks who lead the league in 1-0 leads. At 6:14 of the first period, Jusso Parssinen scored an unassisted goal to give the Avs a 1-0 lead. From there, the Blackhawks started to put some things together. Ilya Mikheyev scored at 16:48 of the opening frame to tie it up. A good Connor Bedard forecheck gave Mikheyev a strong chance on the net, and he didn't miss. With the assist, Connor Bedard extended his point streak to 8 games. This was the first assist on the streak that wasn't on a Tyler Bertuzzi goal. About halfway through the second period (10:17), Frank Nazar scored his first of the season in the NHL. After dominating the AHL all year long, he finally has his first of the year in the big leagues. Colton Dach assisted on Nazar's goal, which was his first career point in the National Hockey League. After a few strong games with Chicago, he might have cemented himself in the lineup for now. In the third period, when it felt very realistic that the Avalanche would tie it up, Connor Bedard came to the rescue at 11:54. After having one waived off earlier in the game for a distinct kicking motion guiding the puck in, he scored another using his incredible wrist shot. At this stage, the Blackhawks had a 3-1 lead. When Bedard came out of major junior, the report was that his blistering shot was his best strength. Since coming to the NHL, he's shown an even better playmaking ability than most expected. However, he hasn't used his shot enough and this goal is proof that he should be utilizing it more. That 3-1 score stood as the final in favor of Chicago. Another impressive win over an elite team playing well was just what the doctor ordered for the Hawks. From the start of the game, Colorado's top line of Nathan MacKinnon (NHL's current leading scorer), Mikko Rantanen, and Arturri Lehkonen dominated. They also were helped by Cale Makar who is the best defenseman in the NHL making big plays around them. They had their looks but Petr Mrazek stood tall and those four ended up having a combined 0 points. Shutting those guys down completely is not easy and the Hawks did it in this win. Speaking of Mrazek, he was the first star of the game thanks to the 36 saves he made on 37 shots. He looked like the Mrazek that existed before the coaching change was made last month. Next up for the Hawks is a date with Patrick Kane and the Detroit Red Wings. This will be the first half of a back-to-back with travel so the Hawks could use some momentum from this win to carry over into the trip to Michigan. Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/] team site to stay updated on the latest news [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators/latest-newshttps://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/latest-news], game-day [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators/game-dayhttps://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/game-day] coverage, player features [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators/playershttps://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/players], and more.
