Colin Blackwell scored his first career hat trick during the Chicago Blackhawks’ 7-4 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday at the United Center.
Blackwell had tried to serve up Connor Bedard’s first hat trick in the third period, but the rookie lost his handle on the puck. Blackwell got his first hatty later in the period with an empty-netter.
Both he and Bedard put on a show.
Bedard proved that not all of his goals have to be pretty. With the Hawks down 2-0 in the second period, his shot from behind the net bounced in J.J. Moser’s leg.
Now Bedard’s second goal, that was a work of art.
After Blackwell tied the score at 2, the Coyotes gifted the Hawks a five-on-three power play. Bedard employed his deadly toe-drag release to maneuver around Josh Brown’s stick and whip the puck past Connor Ingram.
The league’s third-ranked team in penalties wasn’t done with its generosity.
The Coyotes bench was tagged with an unsportsmanlike penalty, and Tyler Johnson ripped in a power-play goal nine seconds later to give the Hawks a 4-3 advantage.
Thirty-three seconds into the third, Blackwell scooped in a rebound of Seth Jones’ shot for his second goal of the night.
It was a complete turnaround from how the game started.
After the Coyotes got manhandled 5-2 last week at Mullett Arena, they weren’t going to underestimate the Hawks and jumped on them early.
Six minutes into the first period, Clayton Keller banked a shot off the post as Barrett Hayton screened Arvid Söderblom.
Keller struck again 11 seconds into the second, leaking behind the Hawks defense to beat Söderblom. Nick Schmaltz and Hayton assisted on both of Keller’s goals.
During the Hawks’ first power play, Hayton waltzed in untouched to fire off a short-handed backhander, and when that didn’t land, he played keep away in the corner from five Hawks.
The Hawks flipped the momentum with four goals in the second and Blackwell’s goal early in the third, but the Coyotes turned the tables. They had the Hawks hemmed up and on their heels, giving up chance after chance before ex-Hawk Schmaltz rang up his 19th goal of the season.
Ryan Donato answered 1:09 later to push the lead to 6-4.
Bedard had a shot at a hat trick on a two-on-one with Blackwell, but he muffed it.
