Bedard gets career-high 5 points, Blackhawks score 7 in win against Ducks

CHICAGO -- Connor Bedard had an NHL career-high five points with a goal and four assists for the Chicago Blackhawks in a 7-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at United Center on Tuesday.

"I always try to go in with the same mindset and try to play the same,” Bedard said. “It's funny, I had eight games straight without a goal and then you have a couple of big ones and people kind of forget about that. I'm just trying to stick to what works. I've been fortunate the last two to get a couple, but it's only two games and obviously it means nothing if we come out and don't do great.”

Bedard surpassed his previous career high of four points (two goals and two assists), set at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 9, to become the fifth 18-year-old in NHL history to have a five-point game. It was his second consecutive multipoint game after getting two goals and an assist in a 7-4 victory against the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.

“That’s very impressive, obviously, for anybody,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “He’s very talented, but he’s still young and learning, and I think five points was a great way to describe his night. I thought he was dynamic with the puck and pretty elusive. But the best part about it is his defensive game is getting better.”

Nick Foligno had four assists, and Philipp Kurashev had two goals and two assists for the Blackhawks (18-43-5), who have won two in a row and three of their past four. Petr Mrazek made 27 saves.

Brett Leason scored twice for the Ducks (23-39-3), who have lost three in a row and four of five. John Gibson made 20 saves on 26 shots before being replaced by Lukas Dostal at 9:18 of the third period. Dostal made four saves on five shots.

“I think they were just good on the forecheck,” Leason said of the Blackhawks. “We just couldn’t get a lot of pucks out. They did a good job keeping them in. They were quick to transition off our turnovers, and they capitalized on quite a few chances there.”

Leason’s short-handed goal gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 10:39 of the first period. Leason scored on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle on a 2-on-1 set up by defenseman Cam Fowler’s long pass.

Ryan Donato tied it 1-1 at 11:27 on the same power play, scoring on the rebound off Taylor Raddysh’s shot after feeding him the puck from behind the net.

Leason put Anaheim back up 2-1 at 1:51 of the second period on a wrist shot between Mrazek’s pads off a pass from Urho Vaakanainen.

Kurashev tied it 2-2 at 3:25, capping a 2-on-1 rush by taking a cross-ice pass from Bedard and scoring from the right circle.

Seth Jones gave Chicago a 3-2 lead at 11:49 after taking a pass in the right circle from Foligno during a 4-on-3 power play.

Bedard scored at 19:31 to extend it to 4-2, taking a cross-ice pass from Kurashev and putting a one-timer past Gibson for his 20th goal of the season.

“Scoring goals is nice, kind of those round numbers, but it's not something I really thought about too much,” Bedard said. “But, yeah, I guess it’s good.”

MacKenzie Entwistle pushed it to 5-2 at 2:43 of the third period, scoring from in front after Andreas Athanasiou carried the puck to the net.

“Give them credit,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said of the Blackhawks. “It’s a 4-2 game, and they came out the second or third shift of the third period and stripped us of the puck on a forecheck and made it 5-2. We’re trying to get back into the game and make it a one-goal game. They make it 5-2, and now you’re chasing the game.”

Kurashev made it 6-2 at 3:10 on the power play after taking a pass from Bedard in the right circle. The assist was Bedard’s 30th of the season.

Tyler Johnson scored a power-play goal from the crease on a pass from Bedard at 10:06 for the 7-2 final.

There was some confusion after a skirmish at 9:18 of the period, when Cronin replaced Gibson with Dostal. Cronin said the Ducks believed Gibson had been ejected for crossing the red line to take part in the altercation on the other end of the ice.

“Somebody told me he was out of the game,” Cronin said. “But he wasn’t. He was getting undressed, and then they came in and said, ‘[Gibson’s] not thrown out.’ I said, ‘Well, somebody told him he was.’ I was asking them what happened. How does he get the message that he’s tossed out of the game and trying to sort out who was in the box and who was coming out first? He was given a two- and a 10 (minute penalty), but he could have stayed in the net.”

NOTES: Bedard joined Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (five assists on Nov. 19, 2011), Ilya Kovalchuk (one goal, four assists on Jan. 19, 2002), Dale Hawerchuk (three goals, two assists on March 13, 1982) and Jack Hamilton (four goals, one assist on Dec. 4, 1943) as the fifth 18-year-old in NHL history with a five-point game. Nugent-Hopkins and Kovalchuk are the only other 18-year-olds with a four-assist game … Bedard (three goals, five assists in his past two games) joined Hawerchuk (four goals, four assists March 13-16, 1982) as the second teenager in NHL history with eight points in a two-game span. … Athanasiou had two assists and three shots on goal in 16:03 of ice time in his first game since sustaining a groin injury Nov. 9 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.