Corey Perry scores as Chicago Blackhawks top Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1
TORONTO (AP) — Corey Perry, Tyler Johnson and MacKenzie Entwistle scored in the second period, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Monday night.
Taylor Raddysh added an empty-netter for Chicago (2-2-0), and Arvid Soderblom made 34 stops. Andreas Athanasiou had two assists.
“Fun game to play,” Soderblom said. “Great team game. The boys made it easy for me. I had to step up there in the end with a couple of big saves, but overall we made a huge effort.”
Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard — the NHL’s most-hyped youngster since Connor McDavid — continued a season-opening tour of hockey-mad markets after starting his professional career against childhood idol Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins before visiting the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.
The 18-year-old Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft, recorded a point in each of his first three games, but was held off the scoresheet Monday.
“A lot of chances,” Entwistle said. “They’re soon gonna start going in. He’s an awesome guy in the room and an awesome teammate.”
John Tavares scored for Toronto (2-1-0), and Joseph Woll made 27 saves in his first start of the season.
Just the second player in the last 106 years to open a season with consecutive hat tricks, Leafs center Auston Matthews was held in check after Toronto combined to score 12 goals over its first six periods of 2023-24.
“We were really sloppy with the puck in the first period,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “And then got beat in transition in the second.”
Perry, who jawed and tussled with Leafs winger Ryan Reaves earlier in the game, snapped a 1-1 tie at 14:46 of the second period. He took a breakaway pass from defenseman Alex Vlasic and fired the puck past Woll.
Johnson, who had two goals in Saturday’s 3-2 loss in Montreal, then made it 3-1 at 17:05 when he got behind Toronto’s defense off the rush. It was Chicago's first power-play goal of the season.
Matthews rattled Soderblom’s crossbar on a deflection that stayed out four minutes into the third — the closest he would come to a seventh goal on the young season — and Woll made a good stop on Bedard midway through the period.
Toronto got a power play with eight minutes to go in regulation, but couldn’t generate much against the rebuilding Blackhawks’ penalty kill before Soderblom robbed Tavares twice on the doorstep with Woll on the bench for an extra attacker.
Raddysh then iced it late into the empty net.
Booed when he touched the puck at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Bedard faced off against Matthews for the opening draw at Scotiabank Arena. He had an electrifying rush late in the first where he stepped past a defender and forced a nice save out of Woll.
The Leafs goaltender, who got the start after Ilya Samsonov allowed nine goals in consecutive victories to open the schedule, made good stops on odd-man rushes earlier in the period off Nick Foligno and Ryan Donato.
Chicago opened the scoring three minutes into the second when Entwistle beat Woll after he made a good stop on Athanasiou.
“Just kept sticking to our game,” Entwistle said. “We had a lot of big blocks, (Soderblom) played amazing. It was awesome.”
Toronto responded at 5:14 when the red-hot Nylander, with his sixth point of the season, collected a pass and moved into the offensive zone before dropping the puck to Tavares, who fired upstairs on Soderblom.
HALL RETURNS
Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall (shoulder) was back in the lineup following a one-game injury absence after being originally listed as week-to-week.
BEDARD’S DEBUT TOUR
Bedard's entrance into the NHL has been quite the gauntlet.
The long road trip, which wraps up this week in Denver, has included lots of attention — and plenty of media obligations.
“Handling it really well,” said Hall, another former top pick. “He does way too many in-game interviews ... they need to find a way to just let him play.”
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Open a season-long five-game trip Thursday in Florida.
Blackhawks: Conclude a five-game trip Thursday in Colorado before Bedard’s home debut Saturday against Vegas.
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