Maybe Connor Bedard’s mom, Melanie, should attend every road trip.
The 18-year-old led the way as part of a huge Blackhawks scoring outburst Thursday night in Tampa Bay, as Chicago rolled over the Lightning 5-3 on the first night of “Moms Trip”. Bedard tallied four points in the tilt – two goals and two helpers.
He didn’t need much time to do it, either. After the Lightning opened the matchup with a quick goal, Bedard tied it up with a goal less than five minutes into the first period, a nice play in front of a crowded net where he tipped in a feed from Philipp Kurashev.
Bedard was flying around the ice throughout the first period, putting nearly constant pressure on Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson. He didn’t get his second point until 17:38 into the game, but he made it count. A sick no-look feed to Tyler Johnson put the Blackhawks in front, 3-2.
The first-overall pick seemed to ride the momentum from that feed into his next chance on net. After helping grab a turnover at center ice, he dished the puck to Nick Foligno, who found him at point-blank range. With the puck on Bedard’s stick and a bit of room to work with, the rest was history.
Bedard was hit in the mouth by Tanner Jeannot at the beginning of the second period, a play that drew blood from the young skater but ultimately resulted in a double-minor penalty. A minute into the power play, Bedard fired a shot on net and Corey Perry did what he does best, tipping the puck into the back of the net. The Blackhawks were held scoreless through the rest of the game, but Bedard had himself a four-point night in just over 22 minutes of game time.
Bedard will have to wait a bit longer for his first career hat trick, but he had a number of career firsts in his big night. He’s been filling up the scoring column this season but registered his first career multi-point game Thursday. He also made it his first multi-goal game and three-point game.
Bedard continued to rewrite the record books on franchise and NHL levels, too. At 18 years and 115 days old, he’s the youngest player in Blackhawks history to register a multi-goal game. As Blackhawks Talk mentioned above, Bedard is also the youngest player in the NHL to record a four-point game since 1944.
As Bedard continues to lead his young team back into contention, he’ll hope to have plenty more nights like this one. As he continues to rewrite the record books, the youngster seems to get better by the day.
Nice article as always Isaac