The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Calgary Flames 4-0. Connor Bedard had four points, Tyler Bertuzzi scored two more goals, and Spencer Knight earned a shutout. 

However, it wasn’t all great for the Blackhawks. They lost Frank Nazar to injury in the first period. Joel Farabee of the Flames made a strange play that led to Nazar falling awkwardly. Farabee had to respond to this action with a fight against Colton Dach.

Nazar did not return to the game, as the Blackhawks announced ahead of the start of the second period. 

After the game was over, when asked about it, Jeff Blashill gave what is considered to be a positive update on the up-and-coming star forward. Blashill called Nazar’s injury day-to-day and didn’t rule him out for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. 

If Nazar misses one game or no games, that would be a huge win for the Blackhawks. He is one of their leaders when it comes to offense, defense, and special teams. Few forwards on the team help their team in all three zones more than Nazar. 

As more updates are made available on the coming day, The Hockey News will have updates.

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The Chicago Blackhawks came into their Friday night matchup against the Calgary Flames feeling good after a matchup against the Vancouver Canucks that finished strongly for them. They were mostly outplayed, but they found a way to win a hockey game thanks to their goalie, Spencer Knight, and a third-period offensive output. 

Although the Canucks are no wagon, the Flames may be the worst team in the NHL. They are the worst, based on record, as they entered with a mark of 4-9-2 for 10 points. No team wants to be in 32nd place out of 32, so the Blackhawks had to expect the Flames to come in nice and angry. 

Calgary, however, was unable to hang with Chicago. Over the course of the game, the Blackhawks took it to the Flames. It all started with Tyler Bertuzzi scoring two goals to follow up his hat trick against the Canucks. These two goals, the first two of the game, set a win in motion. 

In the third period, Andre Burakovsky put the game out of reach with his 6th of the season to make it 3-0. Connor Bedard assisted on both Bertuzzi goals and this Burakovsky goal. 

Bedard, extending his point streak to 7 games with three assists, wasn’t enough for him. With under five minutes remaining in regulation, Bedard scored on a breakaway to make it 4-0 Blackhawks. That stood as the final. A four-point night for Bedard tied him for the league lead in points at the time of the goal. 

Spencer Knight made 33 saves to earn the shutout. To say he’s been spectacular this season would be an understatement, and he finally has his first shutout in a Blackhawks sweater. 

That’s two straight wins for the Blackhawks, and a 2-2-1 record on the road trip with one game remaining. After starting 0-2-1 on the trip, they still have a chance to turn it into a positive stretch of games away from home. 

Frank Nazar Injury/Fighting

The Chicago Blackhawks announced during the game that Frank Nazar would not return after leaving the hockey game with an injury. Joel Farabee had to answer to Colton Dach in a fight for the play that led to Nazar's injury. It was a lower-body injury, and an update will be provided when available.

Not long after, Oliver Moore took a bad hit from MacKenzie Weegar, and Alex Vlasic stood up for him in a fight. Eventually, Nick Foligno took on Joel Hanley to cap off a three-fight game. 

The Chicago Blackhawks are clearly a team that stands up for each other. Winning usually follows organizations that battle for each other just as much as with each other. 

Watch Every Blackhawks Goal

Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) on Xour first of the night🚨

Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) on Xwe're getting déjà vu👀

Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) on Xsimply perfect🤌

Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) on Xain't it beautiful🥲

Up Next For Chicago

Next up for the Chicago Blackhawks is a Sunday afternoon match with the Detroit Red Wings. This will be the sixth game out of six on the road trip, with a chance to turn it into an above .500 set. 

Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.

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Calgary’s struggles continue as Bertuzzi, Bedard lead Chicago to victory.

The Calgary Flames’ offensive woes continued Friday night as they were shut out 4-0 by the Chicago Blackhawks at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday night. 

Tyler Bertuzzi opened the scoring late in the first period, redirecting a pass at the side of the net past Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf to give Chicago a 1–0 lead after 20 minutes.

In the third, the Blackhawks pulled away. Bertuzzi struck again on a 2-on-1 rush, finishing off a crisp feed from Connor Bedard and roofing the puck for his second of the night — and fifth in just two games. 

Moments later, Bedard sparked another odd-man rush, setting up Andre Burakovsky in the high slot for Chicago’s third goal. Bedard scored the fourth goal late in the third with a highlight reel breakaway goal to go with three assists, extending his point streak to 10 games.

It was another night of frustration for the Flames, who outshot the Blackhawks but failed to convert on their chances against goaltender Spencer Knight. Calgary sits at the bottom of the NHL standings with a 4-10-2 record and just 10 points through 16 games.

There were some tense moments in the second period when rookie defenceman Zayne Parekh — back in the lineup after being scratched — collided with Nick Foligno and left the game with an upper-body injury. He did not return. 

With the team short on defence, Farabee was shifted to the blue line midway through the game to help fill the gap.

Three Takeaways:

1. Parekh shows promise before injury

Before exiting, Parekh stood out early with a strong defensive stick on Bedard and generated a shot on goal. His absence was noticeable after leaving the game following a collision with Foligno.

2. Odd-man rushes prove costly

Defensive breakdowns and turnovers continued to haunt Calgary. Three of Chicago’s four goals came off odd-man rushes after turnovers — a glaring issue that has plagued the Flames throughout the season.

3. No finish despite pressure

Calgary outshot the Blackhawks but couldn’t find any finish around the net. They lacked any sustained offensive zone time, and Knight turned aside every Flames opportunity for the shutout. Matt Coronato had 11 shots on net in the contest. 

In the 2023-24 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins finished with a 38-32-12 record, good for 88 points. 

They missed the playoffs by three points, and a big reason for it was their power play, which ranked 30th in the league at 15.3%. It was a stagnant unit that overpassed, never went to the net, could barely gain the zone, and never had a shoot-first mentality. The power play went through a 0-for-37 slump during the season, which was insane considering the amount of firepower that the Penguins had (and still have to this day). 

The unit's failures cost assistant coach Todd Reirden his job, and David Quinn was brought in before last season to fix a broken unit. He did a great job with it, helping the Penguins finish with the sixth-best power play at 25.8% last season. They missed the playoffs by more than three points, but got back to basics on the power play. The zone entries were cleaned up. A net-front presence was established. They weren't playing patty-cake at the blue line. They had a shoot-first mentality. 

All of those qualities have been turned up several notches to start the 2025-26 season as the Penguins currently have the top power play in the league at 35.9%. The unit went 3/5 against the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, and it could've gone 4/5 or even 5/5 after spending a ton of time in the offensive zone. 

One of the biggest reasons for the PP's hot start is because of assistant coach Todd Nelson. Nelson joined the Penguins' coaching staff under head coach Dan Muse during the offseason after Quinn followed former Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan to New York. Nelson wants his players to zip the puck around with authority and keep penalty killers guessing, and both features have been on display throughout the first month of the season. 

If you go back to the first power play goal on Thursday, the Penguins moved the puck beautifully through the offensive zone before Ben Kindel delivered a gorgeous cross-ice pass to Sidney Crosby. It caught the Capitals completely off guard. 

Things you love to see: Sidney Crosby scoring against the Capitals 💪 pic.twitter.com/LmfUiXdmSb

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 7, 2025

Another example of these qualities in action came during the Penguins' game against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 23. They had some great puck movement before Crosby finished off a beautiful tic-tac-toe play near the goal line. The Panthers didn't see it coming.

Tic, tac, toe.

That's another power-play goal! pic.twitter.com/BsH4RFATfT

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 24, 2025

Crosby is super thrilled with the work that Nelson has put in on the PP.

"I think it has changed a little bit, just based on injuries, so I think it's about everybody being on the same page, being organized, and executing," Crosby said after Friday's practice. "For the most part, you don't want to change your game plan night-to-night, so I think that we're pretty consistent in how we want to approach it, and there are always little tweaks, depending on who you play, but I think it's been pretty clear as far as the mindset of the group. That has a lot to do with the way they are structuring it and organizing it, and it's up to the guys to go out there and execute."

Penguins Overcome Another Blown Lead, Take Down Washington CapitalsFor the first 20 minutes of their Thursday matchup - and first of the season - against the Washington Capitals, the way the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a> were dominating was quite similar to what they did to the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs">Toronto Maple Leafs</a> for the first 40 minutes of a <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-suffer-epic-third-period-collapse-fall-to-leafs-4-3">heartbreaking 4-3 loss on Monday.</a>

While Bryan Rust's process hasn't always been there in all situations this season, he scored a beauty of a PP goal on Thursday, which turned out to be the game-winner. It came off a ridiculous feed from Evgeni Malkin, who has eight assists and nine points on the man-advantage. 

Rust echoed a lot of what Crosby said about Nelson after practice, including calling Nelson "awesome." 

"Todd's been awesome," Rust said. "He's given us a blueprint on kinda what to do and I think he's also given us the leeway to kinda play with a little bit of a creativity, which I think, there's obviously a fine line of getting too out of control, but I think we're in a good spot right now and we're trying to continue to keep getting better and keep on building."

The Penguins' PP is going to face tougher penalty kills this season, including on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, who rank sixth in PK percentage, but as long as that unit keeps every PK guessing and on their toes, it's going to be really hard to stop. 

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