Ryan Donato scored twice and provided an assist, while Philipp Kurashev and Lukas Reichel also found the net as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 in Denver on Monday night.
Ilya Mikheyev netted his first goal of the season, Jason Dickinson contributed with two assists, and Petr Mrazek made 24 saves for Chicago, ending their four-game losing streak.
Nathan MacKinnon scored for Colorado, extending his point streak to 10 games this season, with Casey Mittelstadt also contributing a goal. Alexandar Georgiev had 21 saves, but the Avalanche’s five-game winning streak came to an end. Ross Colton, who leads the Avalanche in goals, did not play in the third period.
Chicago opened the scoring at 8:47 of the first period when Kurashev fired a slap shot from the left circle, marking his second goal of the season.
Kurashev’s goal ignited a high-scoring first period.
Just 1:29 later, Logan O’Connor set up Mittelstadt, who skated into the slot to score his sixth goal of the season. Then, 48 seconds after Mittelstadt, Reichel scored his first goal of the season, putting the Blackhawks ahead 2-1, and Donato extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:56.
Late in the first period, Colorado benefited from a 5-on-3 power play after Tyler Bertuzzi and Wyatt Kaiser took back-to-back minor penalties. MacKinnon took advantage, receiving a pass in the neutral zone, skating past defenseman Seth Jones, and slipping a shot past Mrazek at 19:17 for his fifth goal of the season.
The second and third periods went scoreless, although Colorado carried the momentum late in the final frame. They had several missed scoring opportunities and had to kill a minor penalty for goaltender interference at 15:54.
With 1:52 remaining, Georgiev left the net for an extra skater. Donato sealed the game with an empty-net goal at 19:02, his fifth of the season, and assisted on Mikheyev’s empty-net goal at 19:41.
