Mammoth fan who taunted Connor Bedard then drew his ire: ‘I kinda deserved it’

SALT LAKE CITY — Connor Bedard didn’t raise his arms. Didn’t rush over to Tyler Bertuzzi to give him a big hug. Heck, he didn’t even smile.

After firing a perfect pass between Ian Cole’s legs and onto Bertuzzi’s stick for the tap-in equalizer early in the third period of Thursday night’s game against the Utah Mammoth, Bedard simply turned away from the net and stared daggers directly into the eyes of a single Utah fan.

“I kinda deserved it,” McClain Lindquist said — a little sheepish, a little proud.

It was fitting that Lindquist works in the funeral business, because it was an absolute death stare from Bedard. Lindquist told The Athletic — after laughingly telling the child next to him not to listen — that he had been repeatedly pointing at Bedard and telling him that “Logan Cooley was his daddy.” Since Lindquist was sitting inches from the glass in special seating in the Zamboni tunnel, Bedard heard him every time and had glanced his way a couple of times before the goal.

So after the goal, Bedard knew exactly where to look.

“It was awesome,” Lindquist said. “Good for him. I thought it was great.”

Right after Lindquist said that, Frank Nazar knocked in the go-ahead goal right in front of where he was sitting. The Salt Lake City resident immediately started scanning the ice to see if Bedard was on the ice and was going to come back to him. He wasn’t.

“I thought it was funny,” Bedard said afterward. “He’ll probably tell his kids about it.”

Bedard wasn’t done with the Utah fans, either. After he buried an Alex Vlasic rebound for the overtime winner — giving Chicago its fourth win in four tries against the Mammoth this season, including a third in the last 12 days — Bedard again went right to the glass to stare down some fans. Only this time, he was on the other end of the rink. Afterward, Bedard deadpanned that he couldn’t remember if he was looking at a specific fan.

Bedard was feeling feisty throughout the Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory. He got into a prolonged wrestling match with MacKenzie Weegar just outside the Utah crease, then later knocked Weegar off his feet with a big hit in the corner. Facing the Mammoth for the third time in 12 days, some bad blood had built up.

But it was Bedard’s interactions with the Utah fans that were most memorable. And the Blackhawks loved it.

“I’m trying to go celebrate with him, and I see him looking into the crowd,” Bertuzzi said with a laugh.

Bedard, as he does, shrugged most of it off.

“It just gets you going a bit,” he said. “I don’t know. It’s fun playing on the road. Especially when you win. It (gets) pretty quiet.”

He even downplayed the wrestling match with Weegar, the newest Mammoth defenseman, whom he’s met a couple of times at Hockey Canada events. Each had hold of the other’s stick, and neither wanted to be the first to let go. They were still rolling around the ice while the play was all the way at the other end of the rink.

“I was just tired, and I didn’t want him to beat me up the ice,” Bedard said. “I was trying to work smart, not hard.”

Bedard wasn’t the only standout for the Blackhawks. Nazar had a goal and an assist, giving him three goals and five assists during a five-game point streak. Just like in his rookie season, Nazar seems to be closing strong after getting stymied for so much of the season.

“Even games he wasn’t getting points, he was playing great,” Bedard said. “He was a little snakebitten, for sure. He’s so important to our team and such a great player, and obviously (it’s) great to see him getting rewarded. He’s going to keep doing that. He’s someone that’s always around it, always around the net and making plays. He’s fun to watch and means so much to our group.”

With so many meetings in such a short amount of time, things got particularly heated Monday night at the United Center, with skirmishes after seemingly every whistle. Thursday night’s matchup was a little more tame, but when things did pick up, Bedard was usually in the middle of it.

And as the Blackhawks — and one Mammoth fan in particular — are learning, a spicy Bedard might be the best Bedard.

“Listen, he’s got what all the great players have, and that’s a high, high level of compete,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ve seen it at different times this year. Good for him. He’s a very competitive person.”