The Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, February 29th, at the United Center. Unfortunately, the Blackhawks lost 5-0 against the Avalanche… Justus Annunen made 24 saves in his first NHL shutout, and Nathan MacKinnon reached 100 points, joining the only other player this season, Nikita Kucherov.
Avalanche lineup against the Blackhawks:
Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Wood – Colton – O’Connor
Parise – Johansen – Drouin
Cogliano – Wagner – Kiviranta
Toews – Makar
Girard – Manson
Byram – Johnson
Annunen
Georgiev
Blackhawks lineup against the Avalanche:
Beauvillier – Bedard – Kurashev
Blackwell – Dickinson – Anderson
Foligno – Johnson – Raddysh
Donato – Entwistle – Johnson
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Tinordi – Crevier
Mrazek
Soderblom
Late into the first period at 2:02, Zach Parise gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the season. Parise got a pass from Jack Johnson, who went past Anthony Beauvillier along the left-wing boards, skated into the Chicago zone with the puck, and passed into the slot… Parise then scored on a wrist shot.
Ross Colton scored on the power play to make it 2-0 at 13:04 of the second period. He scored off his own rebound from the slot, then scored from in front. Zach Parise extended Colorado’s lead to 3-0 with his second of the night when he backhanded the puck into the crease from behind the net after he had carried it through the slot on a setup by Ryan Johansen. Pushing it 4-0 with just seconds remaining, Devon Toews struck his 11th of the season from the left face-off circle.
At 2:28 of the third period, Nathan MacKinnon recorded his 100th NHL point of the season when he scored for the 5-0 final. The Avalanche added a fifth straight loss to the Blackhawks’ losing streak… Chicago won one game in their past 14.
Connor Bedard before taking on the Colorado Avalanche: “They’re loaded… MacKinnon is having an unbelievable season, they got Makar and all of those guys… We played them really well last time, obviously, it was a long time ago now but I think just playing simple and try to make them play defense as much as possible. Obviously, they’re going to make their plays and going to get their looks, but if we can limit that, that’d be huge.”
Notes:
– Petr Mrazek made 29 saves for Chicago
– Zach Parise scored two goals and had an assist, and Cale Makar recorded two assists.
Makar’s first assist of the game gave him his 50th of the season… this makes him the first defenseman in team history with multiple seasons of at least 50 assists. He had 58 in the 2021-22 season.
– Nathan MacKinnon’s assist on Ross Colton’s goal had given him his 539th career assist, moving him into third place past Peter Forsberg on the franchise’s all-time list. He also became the first player since 1995-96 in Colorado Avalanche history and fourth in franchise history with 100 points in two or more consecutive seasons… MacKinnon follows Peter Stastny (six, 1980-86), Michel Goulet (two, 1982-84), and Joe Sakic (two, 1989-91), all have achieved this feat with the Quebec Nordiques.
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