Blackhawks’ Bedard shows Ducks what they missed

Chicago rookie and top pick has goal and four assists to set high for points in a game.

CHICAGO — Connor Bedard had a goal and four assists to set his single-game high in points, Philipp Kurashev scored twice and had two assists, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Ducks 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Ryan Donato, Seth Jones, MacKenzie Entwistle and Tyler Johnson also scored for Chicago, which has won two consecutive games for just the second time this season.

Brett Leason scored both goals for the Ducks, who dropped their third in a row.

Bedard, the top overall pick in last year’s draft and a leading candidate for rookie of the year, earned his fifth point when he assisted on Johnson’s power-play goal midway through the third period. The 18-year-old Bedard has eight points in two games and 10 in the last four.

The Ducks drafted second and selected Leo Carlsson, who’s sidelined because of a concussion.

Chicago, suddenly resurgent on the power play, scored four times with the man advantage.

“Give them credit,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “It’s a 4-2 game, and they came out the second or third shift of the third period and stripped us of the puck on a forecheck and made it 5-2 [on Entwistle’s goal]. Now you’re chasing the game.”

Leason’s short-handed goal opened the scoring midway through the first period, but the Blackhawks evened the score before their power play expired when Donato poked the puck behind goalie John Gibson during a goal-mouth scrum.

It took Chicago just 1:34 to tie the score a second time after Leason’s goal early in the second period. Kurashev took Bedard’s pass on a twoon-one and beat Gibson from short right wing. Nick Foligno picked up the first of his career-high four assists by starting the play.

Jones’ pinch deep into the Ducks’ end resulted in Chicago’s second powerplay score and a 3-2 lead with Bedard getting an assist.

Chicago made it 4-2 with 28 seconds left in the middle period when Bedard scored his 20th of the season, set up by Kurashev, who collected his 100th NHL point. Bedard is the first Blackhawk to score 20 goals as an 18-yearold since Ed Olczyk did it in 70 games as a rookie in the 1984-85 season.

Kings vs. St. Louis

Wednesday night’s game ended after this edition’s deadline. For that story and more coverage go to latimes.com/sports.