RECAP: Bedard's Three Points Not Enough in Carolina

RALEIGH, NC. -- The Blackhawks tried to make it a second straight game with a third-period comeback on Monday night in Carolina, but a lopsided first period proved too much to overcome in an eventual 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes in the teams' first meeting of the year.

Connor Bedard factored into all three Chicago goals with a power-play tally and two assists -- primary helpers on a second-period Nick Folingo and on a Tyler Johnson power-play goal in the third. Carolina had six different goal scorers on the night including a Jordan Martinook empty-netter in the final minutes to squash the comeback bid.

Petr Mrazek made 36 saves on 41 shots in the loss.

QUICK HITS

• Connor Bedard continues to lead the Blackhawks offense, contributing on all three goals on the night. In his three games back from injury, the rookie has points on six of the team's total seven goals (2G, 4A)
• Petr Mrazek faced more than 40 shots on goal for the second straight outing -- the sixth time this season he's seen 40+ shots in a game. Prior to Saturday's win over Ottawa (42 shots against), Mrazek hadn't seen 40 shots in a game since Nov. 4 with all four other instances coming in the first month of the season.
• Tyler Johnson scored his second power-play goal in the last four games and registered three shots in Raleigh, the third time in his last five games with a trio of shots on target.
• Nick Foligno (1G) and Philipp Kurashev (1A) each pushed their point streaks to six games dating back to Feb. 7. The duo have combined for 5 goals and 9 assists in that stretch.
• Anthony Beauvillier returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 2 on Monday night, having missed 18 games with right hand injury. 
• Chicago's road winless streak hit 21 straight games with the team's last two-point performance away from the United Center coming on Nov. 9 in Tampa Bay. 

THEY SAID IT

• "We talked about it as a group between the second and third, just how unacceptable our first two periods were just in our compete level. Everyone is working hard, and I get that, just we're overthinking too much. When you get a team like that that just come at you, you get caught if you overthink. You look slow, you look lethargic and that's what happened. All of a sudden, in the third, where we just said, 'Let's forget about that and just go play,' (and) our game comes to life because of it. It's a good lesson for us because this is just a year of lessons. It is. It sucks saying that, but we're going to have to go through it as a group here." - Nick Foligno on team's start, third-period push.

GAME LINKS

• Game Summary
• Full Box Score
• Highlights

WHAT'S NEXT

The Blackhawks return home to open another five-game homestand starting on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

POSTGAME VIDEO