Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno and Jason Dickinson scored and Petr Mrazek stopped 20 shots as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the visiting San Jose Sharks 4-2 on Thursday.
Chicago outshot San Jose 27-22 to win its home opener and prevail for the second time in the past three games. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen contributed two assists apiece.
Teravainen continued his offensive surge since rejoining the Blackhawks, with whom he spent his first three NHL seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
He has seven points in five games in his return to Chicago, including five points on the man advantage.
Bedard, the top pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, had his third multi-point game of the season.
A potential matchup pitting Bedard against the 2024 top pick was put on hold as San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini remained on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
Celebrini is eligible to come off IR on Friday but will stay sidelined, Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said.
Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, while Mikael Granlund and William Eklund logged two assists apiece. Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves as the Sharks slipped to 0-2-2.
Hall opened the scoring at 4:20 of the first period, collecting a stretch pass from TJ Brodie near the center line before making a move and beating Vanecek with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Chicago tallied its next two goals on the power play, marking the first goals on the man advantage the Sharks have surrendered this season.
Bertuzzi finished a net-front feed from Teravainen at 19:11 of the first period. Foligno scored from just in front of the crease in the opening minute of the second.
Chicago was 2-for-7 on the power play in the game compared to 0-for-3 for San Jose.
San Jose drew within 3-1 when Toffoli scored at 18:17 of the middle period. Toffoli has three goals in four games.
Chicago regained a three-goal advantage when Dickinson scored at 2:19 of the third on a nifty play from behind the net, but the Sharks responded just 33 seconds later.
Zetterlund deflected Granlund’s slap shot from outside the left circle past Mrazek.
San Jose pulled Vanecek in favor of an extra attacker with 3:23 to play but was unable to score.
–Field Level Media
