In Chicago, the Colorado Avalanche’s Pavel Francouz made 31 saves as the Avs handed the Blackhawks another dreary loss, this time 4-1, on Wednesday night.
“I was kind of surprised that we were dominating the first period; we were the much better team,” Francouz said. “They were just lucky that (Corey) Crawford played really well in their net, because he stopped so many chances there.
“To me, it was an easy first period; I didn’t have much saves there. Unfortunately, I let one in and it didn’t feel great, but the guys were able to score two more goals in the second and then we managed the game pretty well.”
Ryan Carpenter scored the only Chicago goal on the night.
“We don’t give ourselves an opportunity to get a bounce,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Their first goal, they had someone at the net, they got a puck through, it’s in. You leave a lot on the table offensively when you’re not doing those things.”
Mikko Rantanen and Ian Cole had multi-point nights with a goal and assist apiece.
“It was a really good first period. I thought we were stingy defensively, we weren’t making some of the mistakes we were making lately, committed to our defensive details,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “Second period, they started to rack up some shots and put a little pressure on us. … [Nathan] MacKinnon comes up with a big goal, we made a couple of plays there. From there, I thought pretty good third period too.”
Nathan MacKinnon and Andre Burakovsky also scored for the Avs.
[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Corey Crawford made 32 saves in the loss.
Duncan Keith returned to the lineup for Chicago after missing nine games.
“[I] felt good,” Keith said. “It was good to be back. [I] tried to have a good gap. I felt like I was able to break up a few plays there coming off the rush early in the game, but you know it’s tough out there.”
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