For the first two periods, not much took place for the Chicago Blackhawks or the Anaheim Ducks. The home team fumbled some scoring opportunities while the road team missed their shots, leading to a 0-0 tie going into the second intermission.
At the 9:43 mark in the third period, the Hawks found their groove. Center Frank Nazar earned his seventh point of the season on a tap-in goal to break the zeros on the United Center jumbotron for the 1-0 lead.
In the final two minutes, defenseman Wyatt Kaiser went to the box for a delay of game penalty. The Ducks had the man advantage to end the period.
The Hawks’ penalty kill unit slipped with 35.8 seconds left in the third, as center Mason McTavish launched a snipe over goaltender Spencer Knight’s shoulder to tie the game.
Fans in their Hawks sweaters groaned as they felt another game slipping away late. The team has been competitive — they’ve been tied or leading to start the third in all seven games — but unable to turn that fight into victory.
It was time for a change. Center Ryan Donato provided it on Sunday.
“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 on Sunday. Bedard ended his high-quality night with a pass to Donato, who sounded the horn for the Hawks’ third win of the season.
“We’ve had tough moments where we’ve got knocked down a little bit and I think we’ve continued to get back up,” head 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, they fell twice in overtime (Boston and Vancouver) and saw the Montreal Canadiens escape the United Center after taking the lead with seconds remaining in regulation. For this Hawks team, 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 with Ryan Greene. Bedard had one of his best games of his young career, earning a point to bring his season total to seven.
The Ducks (2-2-1) brought coach Joel Quenneville back to Chicago for the first time since he was reinstated by the NHL. The three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach and Hawks executives Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac were banned from the NHL for almost three years after an independent investigation concluded that they mishandled allegations against former Hawks video coach Brad Aldrich made by former player Kyle Beach in 2010. Quenneville was hired by Anaheim on May 8.
Spencer Knight earned his second win of the season and continued his tear in 2025-26 with a 1.96 goals against average on a .937 save percentage. It was his 100th NHL game, to the surprise of the goalie.
“I didn’t even know it was my 100th game until they announced it,” Knight said.
Having won a Stanley Cup with the Panthers, Knight knows how important it is to be in close games. He appreciated the resilience of his teammates to get the win.
“It’s a privilege to be in positions where you’re in close games, I think that’s important for us to realize,” Knight said. “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.”
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