LOS ANGELES — Maybe some of Ryan Donato can rub off on Connor Bedard.
Of course, that’s just a cheeky way of pointing out that Donato leads the Chicago Blackhawks with six goals — three more than Bedard has — but Bedard still leads the team with nine points.
Donato impressed coaches enough to elevate him to the top line as support for Bedard from the right wing.
“I think, tonight, getting Donato on that line makes sense,” coach Luke Richardson said before Saturday afternoon’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. “He’s our top goal scorer right now, and he’s been playing well this year, and just (trying) something new.”
In the early returns, Donato’s addition appeared to be a marginal improvement for Bedard during the Hawks’ 4-3 shootout win.
But Donato still got to play the hero, alongside Tyler Bertuzzi.
Bertuzzi tied the game with 31 seconds left in regulation, and it was Donato who had the primary assist.
Then after a scoreless three-on-three overtime, Donato faked out Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper to give the Hawks the win.
“Dono has been playing unbelievable for us,” said Nick Foligno, who sparked the Hawks’ rally from a two-goal deficit with a goal 3 minutes, 26 seconds into the third. “Heads up to see Bert, and Bert’s around the net where he’s going to help us the most.
“We don’t practice shootouts much, but holy (crap), that was a nice goal.”
How did Petr Mrázek feel?
“Just relieved that I don’t need to face any more shots today,” the goaltender said.
Coach Luke Richardson has said it before: Donato appears to be this season’s Jason Dickinson, an unexpected source of offense who seems destined for a career year.
Richardson liked how Donato looked with Bedard.
“He was great,” Richardson said. “He was good. He was hard. He was on the inside. It gave that line some good sustainability around the net. I think it looked good for the first viewing of this season anyway.”
Donato and Bedard had early shots on goal, though the Hawks were outshot 12-4 in the first period.
Part of that was a function of spending four minutes on penalty kills, which led to the Kings taking a 1-0 lead after the first power play.
Anže Kopitar snuck the puck between Alex Vlasic’s legs to Alex Laferriere for a backdoor goal. Laferriere added another goal during a second period in which the Kings dominated possession.
But the Hawks came alive in the third.
Foligno put back his own rebound off Kuemper to kick off the rally.
“They kind of left the middle open for me,” Foligno said. “I don’t know if they thought I was Nick from 10 years ago, but I felt like it after. You take what they’re giving you.”
Craig Smith one-timed the equalizer after Lukas Reichel made a nice centering pass through traffic. Smith and Reichel now combined on five goals.
“He just wants the puck now,” Foligno said of Reichel. “You see him, he’s dicing through. He’s still got to understand the certain pressures of when he can do it, but man, he’s dangerous when he does.
“He’s so slippery, he’s so fast and makes a great play to Smitty.”
The Kings settled themselves in the third, and Phillip Danault tipped in a rebound off Kevin Fiala’s shot to give L.A. a 3-2 advantage.
But in the final minute of regulation, Donato found Bertuzzi from below the goal line, and Bertuzzi punched it in from above the crease on a kneeling one-timer.
According to NHL Stats, it was just the third time in the last decade that the Hawks won in a shootout after tying the game with 31 seconds or fewer left (also Nov. 24, 2018 and Nov. 27, 2015).
“It’s not the way we want to draw it up, but we got the result, which is what we’ve been talking about,” Foligno said. “We obviously know we can play better and need to play better, but to find a way to come back in this game and get it done is a testament to the guys in here, and honestly probably the hockey gods too.
“We probably deserved to win in San Jose and didn’t. Here we probably didn’t but we got the win.”
Richardson gave the bulk of the credit to Foligno for the team’s resilience.
“I thought a lot of character from our guys, obviously led by our captain, Nick Foligno, with a spirited fight and just the way he played and forechecked and got us that first goal,” Richardson said. “We’re lucky that Petr kept us in (it) at 2-0 up to that point.
“So good lesson, we got to make sure we got our skating legs right out of the gate because that team really put it to us in the first half of the game.”
Mrázek, who made 37 saves, would second that.
“We just have to learn that we can play like the third period we played today,” he said. “We can play it the whole 60 minutes. That’s something that we need to start the game tomorrow (in Anaheim) like we finished the game (against the Kings).”
Meanwhile:
- The Hawks power play was terrible. They mostly got cleared on the first power play. On the second, if not for an off-target backdoor pass by Trevor Moore to Danault, Danault easily might’ve had a short-handed goal.
- Defenseman Isaak Phillips drew in for T.J. Brodie. Richardson said the move was more about getting a young blueliner some reps and not about Brodie’s performance, though Brodie has the worst rating among Hawks defensemen (minus-6).
- Foligno wanted all the smoke. In the first period, he bulldozed Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson along the half wall, and Tanner Jeannot jumped in to avenge him. Foligno and Jeannot had a protracted scuffle, mostly arm jockeying and taking occasional swings. Both got stick taps in salute before heading off to their respective boxes.
- With Donato on the top line, Teuvo Teräväinen took his place on the third line with Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev, but Teräväinen didn’t play in overtime. “Just thought I went with guys who had a little more skating legs at that point,” Richardson said. Teräväinen also didn’t play on a power-play unit, but Richardson said that’s because of Reichel. “We had them both practice there yesterday,” he said. “We just wanted to see how it started and Reichel was skating again and they didn’t get much going on the power play. But I just thought I’d give him that opportunity tonight because he deserved it five-on-five.”