Crosby scores 2, Penguins spoil Bedard's return to Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Sidney Crosby scored twice, and the Pittsburgh Penguins spoiled Connor Bedard’s return to the Chicago Blackhawks with a 4-1 win at United Center on Thursday.

Bedard, the first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, had an assist in his first game since Jan. 5, when he sustained a broken jaw on a hit by the New Jersey Devils’ Brendan Smith. Against the Penguins, Bedard was minus-2 in 21:17 of ice time with four shots on goal.

“Energy felt good,” Bedard said. “It was good to be back, for sure. I want to play games. I mean it's frustrating watching and you can't be out there with your guys and try and help them win and go to battle with them. It's what I love to do. It's all I really want, so it's nice to be back, for sure.”

Crosby’s goals gave him 30 for the season for a Pittsburgh-record 12th time, passing Mario Lemieux. Rickard Rakell and Marcus Pettersson assisted on both of Crosby’s goals, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves for the Penguins (24-20-7), who ended a three-game losing streak.

“I’m just happy to get a win,” said Crosby, the Pittsburgh captain. “Obviously, we could build off this. We need the points. Yeah, however we can get them.”

The Penguins played without Crosby’s linemate Jake Guentzel, who is expected to be out four weeks because of an upper-body injury sustained in a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. Crosby played with Rakell and Bryan Rust on Thursday.

“Not what you want to hear,” Crosby said of Guentzel’s injury. “It didn’t look good when it happened. I think we all understand that it’s a big void to fill, but we’ve been in situations before with guys out. Different guys have found ways to step up, and we’ll have to do that again.”

Arvid Soderblom, playing in his first game since Jan. 24, made 23 saves for the Blackhawks (14-37-3), who have lost eight in row (0-7-1).

Crosby gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead 15 seconds into the first period, tipping in a shot by Pettersson from the left point. Crosby’s redirection sent the puck over the left shoulder of Soderblom.

“It looked to me like he was trying to will it for us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought he was locked in from the very first shift. He was strong on pucks all night. His line was a threat most shifts. I thought he brought his game to another level tonight.”

Reilly Smith made it 2-0 at 12:40. He took a pass from Drew O'Connor in the slot, moved in and scored on a backhand. The rush started in the Penguins’ defensive zone, where O’Connor knocked down a cross-ice pass from Bedard with his stick.

Philipp Kurashev scored on a feed from Bedard at 8:22 of the second period to bring the Blackhawks to within 2-1. Bedard picked up the puck inside the blue line after Kevin Korchinski kept it in the zone, skated into the right circle and passed it to Kurashev in front of the net.

“Yeah, he made a great play and it was great to see one go in,” Kurashev said of Bedard. “Of course it didn’t matter then. We still lost. But it was nice to see him back and healthy and playing again.”

Crosby's second of the game came at 5:51 of the third period, when he put in the rebound of a shot by Rakell for a 3-1 lead.

Rust scored short-handed into an empty net at 19:10 for the 4-1 final.

“Obviously, it’s an important win for us,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to respond the right way. I thought our guys stepped up.”

Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said he felt Bedard changed the team’s dynamic. Chicago was 3-10-1 in the 14 games Bedard missed.

“Yep, I think he’s really worked on his conditioning, and it showed tonight,” Richardson said. “I didn’t see any drop-off. I thought he was ready to go in the second half of that game. So when there were opportunities to get him out there a little bit more, I tried to do that.

“He was good. So that’s a good start for him and hopefully we can build on that as a team and get better next game.”

NOTES: Crosby trails only Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (17) for the most 30-goal seasons among active players. He scored his ninth career goal within the opening 30 seconds of a game and passed Bob Gainey (eight) for the most in NHL history. He also has 15 goals in the opening minute, which is the most in NHL history. … With Guentzel injured, the Penguins recalled forwards Jonathan Gruden, Vinnie Hinostroza and Valtteri Puustinen from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Pusstinen had one shot on goal in 12:44, Gruden played 7:18, and Hinostroza did not play. … The Blackhawks activated Bedard and defenseman Jarred Tinordi (groin) off injured reserve and assigned forward Rem Pitlick to Rockford (AHL). Tinordi played 15:38.