Avalanche Blank Blackhawks 5-0 to Claim Sixth-Straight Win

Stringing six-straight together.
The Colorado Avalanche blanked the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 on Monday night to claim their sixth-consecutive victory as they opened up a three-game homestand at Ball Arena. The Avalanche are now 41-22-6 for their season record and moved into second in the Central Division standings.

Denis Malgin paced the Avalanche with a three-point (2G, 1A) outing, while Kurtis MacDermid (game winner), and Logan O'Connor scored at even strength and Mikko Rantanen (1G, 1A) found the back of the net on the power play. Eleven different skaters recorded at least a point. MacDermid returned to the lineup in place of Cale Makar, who did not play as the blueliner is day-to-day with an injury.
In net, Alexandar Georgiev turned aside all 27 of the shots he faced as he earned his fifth shutout of the season.
For the Blackhawks, Alex Stalock made 27 saves on 32 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

From puck drop until the final buzzer, Colorado executed yet another dominant performance where they benefited from balanced scoring, methodical defense and disciplined play to secure another two-point victory.
The Avalanche jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as MacDermid put the team on the board just 2:41 into play. After missing the last six consecutive games due to injury, MacDermid made the most of his return to the lineup.

Brad Hunt sent a d-to-d feed out to his partner at the point, MacDermid took his space and then unleashed a blast on net. The shot aimed wide but took a fortuitous redirection after hitting off Chicago blueliner Ian Mitchell and beating Stalock.
The Avalanche nearly doubled their lead two just over six minutes into play as Nathan MacKinnon drove to the net and nearly scored on his own rebound. Stalock made the initial stop on MacKinnon's low wrist shot in tight, but as the puck popped out right to net front MacKinnon attempted to roof the rebound. This time, the Chicago netminder made a highlight-worthy sprawled stick save to deny the chance on the goal line and keep it a one-goal game.
The remainder of the period featured uninterrupted end-to-end action as the Avs held just an 11-10 edge in shots. In the final three minutes of the period, Georgiev made a huge stop on the backdoor to preserve Colorado's 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Off a quick odd-man rush Philipp Kurashev snapped a feed to the backdoor for Andreas Athanasiou, but his easy tap-in attempt was kicked away at the goal line as Georgiev slid across to hold off the far post.
Colorado stuck with it in the middle frame - despite a noticeable push from the Blackhawks - and managed a two-goal effort with strikes at even strength from Malgin and a power-play goal from Rantanen to extend the lead 3-0 heading into the final 20 minutes of play.
The Avalanche killed off an early penalty at 1:23 as Bowen Byram was called for closing his hand on the puck. Shortly after, the Avalanche doubled their lead 2-0 on a play off the rush.
Malgin carried the puck into the offensive zone and upon entry, dropped it to his linemate Valeri Nichushkin. Malgin skated into the right faceoff circle where Nichushkin returned the puck to him. From there, Malgin beat Stalock on a sharp angle to net his ninth goal of the season.

After killing off another penalty at 7:19 - Evan Rodrigues for tripping - Colorado received its first power play of the game at 9:54 and capitalized. On the Avalanche's man advantage - which ranks fifth in the NHL at 24.4% - Byram sent the puck into the bumper for J.T. Compher. The centerman immediately touched the puck out to the right faceoff circle to Rantanen. The Finnish winger took his space and then ripped his shot to the far side past Stalock to give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead. The goal also extended Rantanen's goal streak to five-straight games.

Colorado kept the pressure going in the third period as they furthered their lead 5-0 late in the third period with two quick strikes in the span of 14 seconds and outshot the Blackhawks 14-5. Rodrigues did not play in the third period (after suffering an upper-body injury) and in his place on the top line, Malgin occupied the vacant spot and made the most of it as he dished out an assist and scored his second goal of the game.
Colorado found the back of the net at 13:33 as Malgin grabbed a pass from Samuel Girard below the goal line and sent a quick backhanded pass into the slot for O'Connor who fired and beat Stalock.

On the very next shift, Malgin lit the lamp for the second time - and recorded his third point of the night. From the left faceoff circle, MacKinnon grabbed a stretch pass from Rantanen and popped the puck into the slot for Malgin where he turned and put a one-timer past Stalock for the Avalanche's fifth goal of the night.

NOTEWORTHY:

• MacDermid returned to the lineup for the first time since March 7 and was paired alongside Brad Hunt. He scored his first goal of the season and first game-winning goal.
• Malgin buried his ninth and 10th goals of the season and is now one goal shy of matching his career high he set in the 2017-18 season with the Florida Panthers.
• Rantanen recorded his team-leading 47th goal of the season. The Finnish winger extended his point streak to eight games where he compiled 12 points (5G, 7A) in that span. Rantanen also has goals in five-straight games.
• Georgiev made his 51st start of the season for the Avalanche and improved his record to 32-14-5 and earned his career-high fifth shutout of the season.
• Colorado finished the game 1-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
• Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Kurtis MacDermid (lower body), Pavel Francouz (lower body) and Josh Manson (lower body) were scratches for the Avalanche.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche continue their three-game homestand - and look to notch their seventh-straight win - on Wednesday night as they host Pittsburgh. The puck drops between the Avs and Penguins at 6:00 p.m. MT.