Blackhawks honor Roenick by delivering three-game win streak

Jeremy Roenick made the playoffs in each of his first 12 seasons in the NHL, the first eight of which were spent with the Blackhawks.

Connor Bedard has had no such luck, but there are signs of improvement.

By beating Seattle 3-1 on Thursday at the United Center, Bedard experienced the first three-game winning streak since he arrived in the NHL as the No. 1 overall draft pick at the start of last season.

The same combination clicked on the Hawks’ first two goals — Ilya Mikheyev off passes from Teuvo Teravainen. That line has been hot. Teravainen has 8 points in the past three games, while Mikheyev has 5. Defenseman Nolan Allan added his first career goal with 4:49 remaining to stretch the lead.

The Blackhawks activated goalie Petr Mrazek (groin) from the injured list Thursday, but Arvid Soderblom got the start and win against the Kraken. Nothing spectacular, but he turned away 27 of 28 shots.

Soderblom, 25, has probably been the best surprise of the season. The Hawks signed veteran Laurent Brossoit with the intention of Soderblom spending the year in Rockford. But Brossoit hasn’t played due to a knee injury and Soderblom now has five wins.

The Blackhawks honored Roenick for being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this year. Before the game, he did an audience Q&A in the atrium and apologized for spending just eight of his 20 NHL seasons in Chicago.

“When I left here in ’96, it was the literally hardest thing that ever happened in my career,” Roenick said. “I take a lot of responsibility for that. The Hall of Fame speech allowed me to cleanse and really get a lot of things off my chest, really tell everybody how much Chicago means to me.”

Roenick was the Hawks’ first-round pick in 1988, then was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of ’96. He ranks ninth on the Blackhawks’ list of career goals.

“Just by having everybody here, showing up early, coming to listen to my goofy stories, sometimes gets a little crazy and emotional, but I can’t thank you guys enough,” Roenick told the fans. “You guys are the best. I’m hoping I see everybody a lot more in the future.”

Roenick’s other memorable line was, “Playing for Mike Keenan (head coach from 1988-92) terrified me.” The Hawks played a tribute video during the final timeout of the first period.

Hawks forward Nick Foligno, 37, is old enough to have played two years in the league while Roenick was still active. Foligno paid tribute to the Hawks’ latest Hall of Famer at the morning skate.

“The biggest thing I remember is his personality,” Foligno said of Roenick. “There was so much passion that came out of him when you watched him play. He loved the game, he loved the competitive part of the game and he backed it up with his play.

“As an American-born player, it was a guy that really put U.S.-born players on the map, along with some others. You knew Jeremy Roenick’s name.”

With Thursday’s win, the Hawks improved to 4-3 since making the coaching change to elevate assistant Anders Sorensen. They also stretched their streak of successful penalty kills to 30.

The Hawks had a ridiculous number of great scoring chances in the first period and came up empty. Mikheyev missed an open net off a rebound, they got a two-on-zero break after a turnover and Ryan Donato was turned away, Tyler Bertuzzi and Allan hit the post, while a Taylor Hal rebound attempt was stopped by a Seattle defenseman in the goalmouth.

The Hawks also missed a ridiculous number of chances at an empty-net goal, but it didn’t matter.