For the first two periods Sunday night at the United Center, not much took place for the Chicago Blackhawks or the Anaheim Ducks. The home team fumbled some scoring opportunities while the road team missed its shots, and the game remained scoreless at the second intermission.
At the 9:43 mark of the third period, the Hawks found their groove. Center Frank Nazar recorded his seventh point of the season on a tap-in goal to break the zeros on the United Center scoreboard.
But in the final two minutes of regulation, Hawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser went to the box for a delay-of-game penalty, giving the Ducks a man advantage to end the period. The penalty-kill unit slipped with 35.8 seconds left as Ducks center Mason McTavish launched a snipe over goaltender Spencer Knight’s shoulder to tie the score.
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Fans in their Hawks sweaters groaned as they felt another game slipping away late. The team has been competitive this season — starting the third period of all seven games either tied or leading — but often unable to turn that fight into victory.
It was time for a change. Center Ryan Donato provided it.
“Connor (Bedard) won another battle and stuck with it and hit me in front, and it’s a nice tap-in,” Donato said. “Those are the ones you pray about every day when you’re in the crease (that) they go in. Thankfully it did tonight.”
The Hawks defeated the Ducks 2-1 in overtime as Bedard ended his high-quality night with a pass to Donato, who sounded the horn for the team’s third win of the season.
“We’ve had tough moments where we’ve got knocked down a little bit and we’ve continued to get back up,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “That’s a huge part of this life. It’s going to happen. But I thought we went out to win the game.”
The Hawks (3-2-2) have endured their fair share of heartbreakers already in 2025-26. They opened the season with a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, fell to the Boston Bruins in overtime and to the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout and saw the Montreal Canadiens escape the United Center with a win after taking the lead with seconds remaining in regulation.
For the Hawks, it was nice to finally end a hard-fought game with a win.
“You can tell by all of our reactions when the puck (hit) on the back of the net,” Nazar said. “We were jumping for joy and just feels good to get a good overtime win at home.”
Jason Dickinson was absent from Sunday’s game, which led to a line shift. Tyler Bertuzzi was elevated to the top line with Bedard and André Burakovsky, while Colton Dach was down to the fourth line with Ryan Greene. Bedard had one of his best games, with the OT assist bringing his season point total to seven.
The Ducks (2-2-1) brought coach Joel Quenneville back to Chicago for the first time since the NHL reinstated him. The three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach and Hawks executives Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac were banned from the league for almost three years after an independent investigation concluded they mishandled allegations against former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich made by former player Kyle Beach in 2010. The Ducks hired Quenneville on May 8.
Knight earned his second win of the season and continued his tear in 2025-26 with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage. It was his 100th NHL game — to his surprise.
“I didn’t even know it was my 100th game until they announced it,” Knight said.
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Having won a Stanley Cup with the Panthers, Knight knows how important it is to be in close games. He appreciated his teammates’ resilience to get the win.
“It’s a privilege to be in positions where you’re in close games,” he said. “That’s important for us to realize. You could say we’re losing these games (and) we’re so close, but that’s what the NHL is. It’s good for us to be in those situations where it means something in the end and playing all the way to the buzzer in the third period.”
Knight has had a large workload so far, playing five of seven games. His demeanor has been unchanged in wins and losses, so he appears to be locked in.
“I don’t really even think twice about who’s on the ice,” Knight said. “I just trust all our guys, and whoever is out there, I know I have their back and they have mine.”