SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Connor Bedard didn\u2019t raise his arms. Didn\u2019t rush over to Tyler Bertuzzi to give him a big hug. Heck, he didn\u2019t even smile.<\/p>\n
After firing a perfect pass between Ian Cole\u2019s legs and onto Bertuzzi\u2019s stick for the tap-in equalizer early in the third period of Thursday night\u2019s game against the Utah Mammoth, Bedard simply turned away from the net and stared daggers directly into the eyes of a single Utah fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kinda deserved it,\u201d McClain Lindquist said \u2014 a little sheepish, a little proud.<\/p>\n
It was fitting that Lindquist works in the funeral business, because it was an absolute death stare from Bedard. Lindquist told The Athletic \u2014 after laughingly telling the child next to him not to listen \u2014 that he had been repeatedly pointing at Bedard and telling him that \u201cLogan Cooley was his daddy.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
So after the goal, Bedard knew exactly where to look.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Lindquist said. \u201cGood for him. I thought it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was funny,\u201d Bedard said afterward. \u201cHe\u2019ll probably tell his kids about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard wasn\u2019t done with the Utah fans, either. After he buried an Alex Vlasic rebound for the overtime winner \u2014 giving Chicago its fourth win in four tries against the Mammoth this season, including a third in the last 12 days \u2014 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\u2019t remember if he was looking at a specific fan.<\/p>\n
Bedard was feeling feisty throughout the Blackhawks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
But it was Bedard\u2019s interactions with the Utah fans that were most memorable. And the Blackhawks loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to go celebrate with him, and I see him looking into the crowd,\u201d Bertuzzi said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Bedard, as he does, shrugged most of it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just gets you going a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s fun playing on the road. Especially when you win. It (gets) pretty quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He even downplayed the wrestling match with Weegar, the newest Mammoth defenseman, whom he\u2019s met a couple of times at Hockey Canada events. Each had hold of the other\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just tired, and I didn\u2019t want him to beat me up the ice,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cI was trying to work smart, not hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven games he wasn\u2019t getting points, he was playing great,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cHe was a little snakebitten, for sure. He\u2019s so important to our team and such a great player, and obviously (it\u2019s) great to see him getting rewarded. He\u2019s going to keep doing that. He\u2019s someone that\u2019s always around it, always around the net and making plays. He\u2019s fun to watch and means so much to our group.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s matchup was a little more tame, but when things did pick up, Bedard was usually in the middle of it.<\/p>\n
And as the Blackhawks \u2014 and one Mammoth fan in particular \u2014 are learning, a spicy Bedard might be the best Bedard.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, he\u2019s got what all the great players have, and that\u2019s a high, high level of compete,\u201d coach Jeff Blashill said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it at different times this year. Good for him. He\u2019s a very competitive person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Connor Bedard didn\u2019t raise his arms. Didn\u2019t rush over to Tyler Bertuzzi to give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99,4829],"class_list":["post-521210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-utah-mammoth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}