Bertuzzi scores twice, Blackhawks top Golden Knights to end 4-game skid

CHICAGO -- Tyler Bertuzzi scored two power-play goals for the Chicago Blackhawks, who ended a four-game skid with a 5-3 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at United Center on Saturday.

“I’m starting to feel better, just coming into games and being better prepared,” Bertuzzi said. “Our chemistry, me and Connor [Bedard], just keeps kind of growing as we go. The biggest thing for us, and we talk about it, is being better defensively. The last few games we have, and we need to continue to do that.”

Seth Jones had a goal and two assists, Taylor Hall scored, and Teuvo Teravainen had two assists for the Blackhawks (15-28-3), who were 0-3-1 in their previous four games. Petr Mrazek made 32 saves.

“It was good for the group coming off that Nashville loss (3-2 in a shootout at the Predators on Thursday), where we felt we played well enough,” Chicago interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “Our first period was really good tonight, second, we kind of fell back a little bit again, but the response in the third was really good to see as a group, to be able to kind of fight through that. They’re a good team on the other side. You knew the push was coming, but it was good to see some offensive zone shifts in the third period with the lead.”

Tomas Hertl scored twice and had an assist, and Shea Theodore had two assists for the Golden Knights (29-14-3), who have lost three in a row and five of six (1-5-0). Ilya Samsonov made 18 saves and had an assist. It was the second of back-to-back games for Vegas, which lost 3-2 at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

“It’s not super ideal, right?” Golden Knights forward Mark Stone said. “Even last game to this game, you see what makes you successful. I think we kind of gift-wrapped a few of their chances, a few of their goals. They get two on the power play. Back-to-back nights with a game kind of where we want it. Just make mistakes. It’s preventable mistakes for us.

“A little adversity is good this time of year, but it’s only good if you work your way out of it. You’ve got to go home and just get back to the drawing board and be ready to battle and find a way to win a game.”

Victor Olofsson gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 9:29 of the first period, taking a cross-ice pass from Alex Pietrangelo and putting a one-timer past Mrazek. It was Olofsson’s 100th NHL goal and 200th career point.

Lukas Reichel tied it 1-1 at 16:00, taking a pass from Nick Foligno at the offensive blue line, skating around Nicolas Hague and going backhand-to-forehand to score.

Bertuzzi put the Blackhawks ahead 2-1 at 16:40 on the power play with a deflection of Jones’ shot from the high slot.

Hall extended it to 3-1 at 19:42 when he jammed the puck into the net off a Patrick Maroon rebound in front.

Hertl cut it to 3-2 at 8:10 of the second period. He took a pass from Theodore and skated around Alec Martinez on the right wing before scoring on the forehand.

Hertl’s second goal of the game tied it 3-3 on the power play at 14:42 when he tipped in a shot by Theodore from the left point.

“We had a bad six minutes,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We did that the other night in Carolina, so it’s a bit of an issue for us right now, our bad stretches. We’re not putting out fires and limiting the damage. We did a much better job of that earlier in the year. But we got it back to 3-3. We overcame that part of it.”

Jones put Chicago back ahead 4-3 at 18:58. He took a cross-ice pass from Bedard at the right point, moved into the right circle and scored on a wrist shot.

“It was a great team win, yeah,” Jones said. “I’m glad I could contribute in a positive way tonight and make some plays offensively and be strong defensively as well.”

Vegas outshot Chicago 17-3 in the second period.

Bertuzzi scored off another deflection at 4:08 of the third period for the 5-3 final.

“I thought we just built off of what we did last game in Nashville,” Bertuzzi said. “We came out from the get-go, keeping it simple, playing hard, playing the way we want to play, and we got rewarded for it. Yeah, it was good.”

NOTES: Golden Knights forward Cole Schwindt left the game at 5:41 of the second period and did not return. He appeared to hurt his leg after getting tied up with Jones in the corner. Cassidy described the injury only as “lower body.” … Foligno played in his 1,200th career game and had an assist. … Bedard, who recorded an assist, has points in 12 of his past 13 games (15 points; six goals, nine assists).