The Blackhawks were shut out on Monday, March 4th when they played against the Colorado Avalanche at the Ball Arena. This is the 10th time this season Chicago has been shut out. Nathan MacKinnon extended his season-opening home streak to 30 games with two goals and two assists. Justus Annunen recorded his second shutout of the season with 37 saves, both against the Blackhawks.
Blackhawks lineup against the Avalanche:
Donato – Bedard – Kurashev
Blackwell – Dickinson – Anderson
Foligno – Johnson – Raddysh
Katchouk – Entwistle Beauvillier
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Tinordi – Crevier
Mrazek
Soderblom
Avalanche lineup against the Blackhawks:
Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Parise – Colton – Drouin
Wood – Johansen – Kiviranta
Cogliano – Wagner – O’Connor
Toews – Makar
Girard – Byram
Johnson – Jones
Annunen
Georgiev
Jason Dickinson attempted to intercept Devon Toews’ pass, however, Nathan MacKinnon skated in on the net to beat Petr Mrazek under his blocker with a snap shot to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead. Later into the first period at 2:39, Jonathan Drouin extended Colorado’s lead to 2-0 with his 11th goal of the season from the right circle with a wrister during a 2-on-1.
At 7:22 of the second frame from just above the right face-off circle – Cale Makar made it a 3-0 game with his 14th of the season with a wrist shot that went in off the far post. This had been Makar’s first goal in 12 games. Zach Parise pushed it to 4-0 with 2:22 remaining in the second period when a point shot was redirected into the net off his skate from Caleb Jones.
Late into the third at 4:25 on the power play, Nathan MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game and his 39th of the season for the 5-0 final.
Connor Bedard (pregame) on the rematch and what the team needs to do differently: “I don’t know, I mean, I think last game we had a good start and then kinda tailed off throughout the game. So I think just kind of keeping pressure on them and trying to be in their end as much as possible,” – “They’re a loaded team and they make it hard to play. They’re fast and they’re structured. So I think just try to work around that.”
Notes:
– Petr Mrazek made a total of 32 saves for Chicago. This is the Blackhawks’ seventh straight loss… their last win was on February 17th against the Ottawa Senators, 3-2.
– Both Cale Makar and Johnathan Drouin had a goal and an assist.
Makar’s (233 assists in 296 games) assist on Nathan MacKinnon’s first goal made him pass Tyson Barrie (232 assists in 484 games) for the most assists by a defenseman in Avalanche/Nordiques history. Mikko Rantanen extended his point streak to seven games with two goals and seven assists… Justus Annunen became the first rookie goaltender to record a shutout in back-to-back games in Avalanche/Nordiques history.
– Nathan MacKinnon has 65 points during his streak (25 goals, 40 assists)… this being the sixth-longest in NHL history, as well as the longest since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 (31 games). However, Wayne Gretzky owns the NHL record for the longest home-point streak when he scored in all 40 games in 1988-89 for the Los Angeles Kings.
MacKinnon also extended his point streak to 10 games (seven goals, 13 assists)… this is his third point streak of at least 10 games this season, making him the second Avalanche/Nordiques player in history to achieve this feat. Peter Stasny also accomplished the feat in 1983-84.
– The Colorado Avalanche tied the most wins through their first 30 home games in a season in team history.
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