Connor Bedard, Blackhawks end season on high note with overtime win over Senators

KANATA, Ontario — It took until the last night of the season, but Blackhawks star Connor Bedard managed to exceed his rookie goal total.

Bedard sniped both top corners of the net in the Hawks’ 4-3 overtime victory Tuesday against the Senators, giving him 23 goals on the year — one more than last season. They were two of the prettiest goals of his career, at that.

He then set up Frank Nazar for the game-winning goal 48 seconds into overtime, concluding the Hawks’ season on a high note. They went 4-1-1 in their last six games to finish 25-46-11.

“[It’s big] for confidence and knowing what we can do, and having a positive outlook on things going into the offseason,” Bedard said. “Obviously, there were some downs this year that were tough. But to end with ... a couple good games is nice.”

The Senators generated a 41-14 advantage in scoring chances, and Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen bluntly said his “mentally tired and physically tired” team had “no business being in that game.” But goalie Spencer Knight was spectacular at times, and defenseman Sam Rinzel helped him out with one miraculous goal-line kick save.

The Hawks won their last three road games — after winning just three of their previous 29 — to finish 10-26-5 on the road and avoid becoming just the third team in the NHL’s salary-cap era to fail to reach double-digit road victories in consecutive seasons. At home, they finished 15-20-6.

Bedard finished with 67 points in 82 games, but he averaged a full point per game from mid-March on. The Hawks’ increased team speed — fueled by the growth of rookie forwards like Nazar and Oliver Moore — seemed to really benefit him.

“Some of the guys are pretty quick; it’s hard to keep up sometimes,” Bedard said, smiling. “There’s a lot of speed. That’s going to be our identity when we keep getting older and keep having guys coming up. We’ve got a lot of guys that can skate in the system, so we’ve got to use that to our advantage.”

Rinzel-evated

Another bright spot during the season’s stretch run was Rinzel, who took over the Hawks’ No. 1 defenseman mantle quickly.

Sorensen entrusted Rinzel with some staggering amounts of ice time — 24:54, 25:03, 26:52 and 23:01 — during the last four games in particular.

Rinzel’s ability to skate with the puck through all three zones already makes him a unique weapon, and his offensive instincts are also impressive. He picked up a helper Tuesday to finish with five assists in his nine NHL appearances.

And he was very unlucky not to get a goal out of 51 shot attempts, including 22 on goal.

“That next step is learning to score a little bit,” Rinzel said Monday. “That’ll come as the game slows down a little bit. I’m learning at this pace ... how to defend guys, especially the top guys. Everyone does everything a little different, and they all have their own strengths.”

This summer, he plans to go back home to Minnesota and work on gaining more weight and strength.

Notes

Defenseman Connor Murphy is the Hawks nominee — for the fifth consecutive year — for the King Clancy Trophy, which is awarded based on leadership and community service.

• Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Lev-shunov will likely be re-assigned Wednesday to Rockford, which still has four regular-season games left before the AHL playoffs. Colton Dach, once healthy, should also join them.