Connor Bedard scores as Blackhawks top Avalanche

CHICAGO (AP) – Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Frank Nazar and Ilya Mikheyev also scored for Chicago, which had lost six of seven. Petr Mrazek stopped 35 shots.

Bedard made it 3-1 when he beat Trent Miner for his 11th goal 11:54 into the third period. The 19-year-old center has four goals and seven assists during an eight-game hitting streak, a career-best streak in his second season.

Juuso Parssinen scored for Colorado in the opener of a three-game road trip. Miner stopped 17 shots in his first career start.

The Avs played without forward Jonathan Drouin, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury. They fell to 12-4-1 in their last 17 games.

Colorado jumped in front when Parssinen converted a backhand 6:14 into the first period. It was his first goal since being acquired in a trade with Nashville on Dec. 28.

Mikheyev answered with his eighth of the season with 3:12 left in the first.

Nazar lifted the Blackhawks to a 2-1 lead 10:17 into the second. Colton Dach got his first NHL point when his shot set up a rebound opportunity for a streaking Nazar, who tapped it in for his second career goal.

Takeaways

Lavine: It was a rough start to the road trip for Colorado, which also lost 5-2 to Chicago on Oct. 28.

Blackhawks: Nazar has played well since being recalled from the minors last month. But he had no goals and two assists in 11 games before breaking through against the Avs.

Key moment

Chicago clung to a 2-1 lead when Mrazek made a stunning sliding save on Nathan MacKinnon with 21.2 seconds left in the second.

Key state

The Avs went 0 for 2 on the power play.

Next

Colorado visits Minnesota on Thursday night. Chicago is at Detroit Friday night.