Brock Boeser scored his 23rd goal this season, tying Auston Matthews for the NHL lead, and Thatcher Demko made 25 saves for the Canucks (21-9-2), who are 5-0-1 in their past six games. Tyler Myers and J.T. Miller each had two assists.
“Obviously, we didn’t like our first [period],” said Canucks coach Rick Tocchet, whose team lost 2-1 in a shootout at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. “The second I thought was our best period, so that was a good response. We talked about holding on to pucks, skating, just winning some battles. I thought in the first period, we were obviously sleepy. The second period was a big response that helped us win the game in that second period.”
Nick Foligno scored two goals, and Connor Bedard had two assists for the Blackhawks (9-20-1), who have lost four in a row. Petr Mrazek made 23 saves.
Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, is a native of North Vancouver, British Columbia. He played an NHL career-high 23:16 against the team he rooted for growing up.
“Yeah, it was great,” he said of facing the Canucks for the first time. “I was talking to my parents this morning. It's pretty wild just thinking about it. Not too long ago I was just cheering for them pretty hard. It's really cool and pretty grateful. To be able to play in this League, obviously, is one thing, but to go against them, it's special.
“I was a big fan being from there and going to a lot of games. Just the whole team.”
Foligno put the Blackhawks ahead 1-0 at 9:59 of the first period. Joey Anderson won a puck battle behind the net then fed it to Foligno, who scored from in front of the crease.
Elias Pettersson tied 1-1 it with a power-play goal at 18:15. Pettersson took a cross-ice pass from Miller and shot the puck past the glove of Mrazek from the right face-off circle.
Foligno scored on the power play to make it 2-1 at 35 seconds of the second period. He finished with a backhand off a rebound of a shot by Bedard.
Dakota Joshua tied it 2-2 at 3:04 when he tipped in a shot from the top of the left circle by Conor Garland.
Boeser put Vancouver ahead 3-2 just 41 seconds later. He elected to keep the puck on a 2-on-1 with Nils Hoglander and scored with a wrist shot past Mrazek’s glove from the left circle.
Ilya Mikheyev pushed it to 4-2 at 15:41 when he tipped in a shot from the right point by Myers.
“’Dak,’ it was a nice job stopping in the slot,” Garland said of Joshua’s goal. “Brock’s was a rush, and there was a tip, too, a good tip by ‘Mik.’ But we also had a ton of guys in front. They just didn’t go in. We could have had a couple more, but when we’ve got [Demko], it’s tough to beat us when we put up four.”
Cole Guttman brought Chicago to within 4-3 at 6:44 of the third period, scoring a power-play goal with a wrist shot from the right circle.
“Forgive me, I hate moral victories,” Foligno said. “But with what we're facing right now with the group we have with injuries, I'm proud of our guys for competing. That's the standard -- we talked about that -- that's bare minimum. And it gives yourself a chance to win every night. Arguably a better team we played tonight than Seattle (a 7-1 loss on Thursday), and we played a way better game and gave ourselves a chance to tie it at least. And we were up at certain points. So that's got to be a resounding message in this room of how we have to play regardless of who's in the lineup. That's Chicago Blackhawks hockey and we have to get to it more.”
NOTES: Bedard had his fourth multipoint game. Among Blackhawks players, only Eddie Olczyk (seven) and Patrick Kane (six) had as many at age 18 or younger. … Anderson left the game after the second period with an upper-body injury. Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said he will be reevaluated Monday.
