In Chicago, the Blackhawks trailed 0-2 in the first period on Tuesday night, but rallied for a 3-2 lead in the third period.
The Colorado Avalanche’s Erik Johnson’s second goal of the game forced an extra session, and Cale Makar ended the Hawks rally with an overtime strike to give the Avs a 4-3 win.
“It was a little bit lucky to be honest,” Makar said. “[Dach] was kind of overcommitting for a cycle up top, and I just decided that I’d try and take it to the net. We had a decoy in the back, and that was kind of my first option to pass to. Once they took that away, I just tried to put it in short side and was just able to get it over [Marc-Andre] Fleury. Excited just to get the win.”
Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves in the Avs win.
“The first one, just a nice, delayed pass from [Kadri], and I just took some space and tried to pick my corner, and there’s a great screen by a couple of our guys, and it just found its way in,” Johnson said. “Second one, I just tried to get it to the net. Got lucky on a deflection off their ‘D.’ I don’t put the puck in the back of the net as much as I used to, but any time you can contribute and help the team get a victory like tonight where we played so, so good in the first and pretty average in the second and not very good in the third and found a way to get it done.”
Alex DeBrincat scored twice in the third period to give the Blackhawks the lead.
Colorado improved to 19-8-2.
Alex Newhook also scored for the Avs.
Chicago dropped to 11-17-5.
“That’s a pretty good hockey team,” Blackhawks head coach Derek King said. “First period, I didn’t think we were too bad, we just made some mistakes early, then we cleaned it up. I think we held our own with one of the top teams in the League.”
Jonathan Toews had a single marker for Chicago.
“Yeah, I mean, you want to score,” Toews said. “You want to find a way to end the game there. Close one but yeah, you want those back when you feel like you can do something a little different. Hindsight’s 20/20.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves in the Chicago loss.
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