There’s something about a bad loss in Chicago in the middle of the season that feels unacceptable. Last year the Avalanche suffered an embarrassing loss in Chicago which placed them outside of the playoff picture at the 40-game mark.
And on Tuesday, the Avs once again fell 3-2 to a Blackhawks team that entered the game losers of four straight and ranked last in the league in points.
Not good.
Valeri Nichushkin scored both goals for Colorado — both in the first period on the power play — but that was all the team could muster against Petr Mrazek, Connor Bedard and company. The Blackhawks were without Seth Jones, Taylor Hall, Andreas Athanasiou and Kevin Korchinski but still managed to come away with a come-from-behind victory.
For the Avs, it’s their fifth straight loss on the road (0-3-2) dating back to late November. They’ve fallen to 7-7-2 away from Ball Arena and have a minus-8 goal differential.
The Avalanche held a 12-3 shot advantage in the third period but gave up the only goal. It was a period filled with poor, untimely penalties. It started with an early holding penalty on Nichushkin deep in the Blackhawks’ zone. The Avs managed to kill that one off before taking another minor, this time a holding-the-stick call on Miles Wood at 7:58.
The play looked as if it didn’t quite warrant a penalty but Chicago was back on the PP and scored just 19 seconds later. When exiting the box, a frustrated Wood said something to the officials and was handed an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct, effectively ending his night.
Colorado killed that penalty off and had several shots on Mrazek but not many dangerous opportunities. Then with 33 seconds remaining, Jonathan Drouin shoved Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy in the Chicago crease after the whistle, which led to a scrum and another power play for Chicago. Ryan Johansen was given four minutes for roughing and Chicago’s Isaak Phillips received two. The late penalties meant a faceoff deep in the Avs zone, which put goalie Alexandar Georgiev back in goal and effectively ended Colorado’s attempt at a late game-tying goal.
Superstar defenseman Cale Makar missed his third straight game for the Avalanche with a lower-body injury. He traveled with the team but also missed morning skate. Head coach Jared Bednar previously said on Sunday that the team won’t rush Makar back from a lingering issue he’s been dealing with for the majority of the season.