The Chicago Blackhawks took on the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday night. It was the first matchup between the last two number-one overall picks, Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini. The first period went very poorly for Chicago.
They were outshot 10-6, and that doesn’t even tell the full story. San Jose made it to the first intermission up 2-0 thanks to goals scored by Will Smith and Spencer Graf. The second frame was much better for Chicago, but that wouldn’t be hard to achieve as the first period was as rough as it gets.
Just ten seconds in, Frank Nazar brought the Blackhawks back within one thanks to his beautiful snipe. About halfway through the period, the Sharks found some luck on the power play. Shakir Mukhamadullin set up Will Smith for a shot but he whiffed.
The bad shot found Colin Graf who redirected it into the net for his first multi-goal game. The former Quinnipiac star put his team back up by two. Chicago wasn’t done battling, though.
Ilya Mikheyev stayed hot with his 15th of the season to keep it close. Ryan Donato made a beautiful play for Mikheyev to deposit. This 3-2 score was held through the second intermission.
Something bizarre happened at the midway point of the third period. After not getting a tripping call, Connor Bedard was handed a 10-minute game misconduct for abuse of officials. It didn’t look like Bedard did anything too egregious but down one goal, the Hawks had their leading scorer in the box for almost the entire second ha.
