COLORADO AVALANCHE (19-10-2) AT CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (9-20-1)
6:30 PM MDT | BALL ARENA | WATCH: ALTITUDE TV | LISTEN: 92.5 FM
The Colorado Avalanche hit the road to face the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night at the United Center. The Central division teams will meet two more times this season on February 29 and March 4.
Latest Results:
December 17, 2023 COL: 6 SJS: 2
December 17, 2023 VAN: 4 CHI: 3
DIVING WITH SHARKS
The Colorado Avalanche took down the San Jose Sharks 6-2 on Sunday night at Ball Arena. The win established a three-game home winning streak for the Avs. Colorado is one game away from sweeping the season series against San Jose, with the finale set for New Year’s Eve.
AVALANCHE vs SHARKS 12.17.2023 RECAP
The Avalanche got out to a fast start tallying two goals on the power play from Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen. Shortly after, Miles Wood buried a shot over Mackenzie Blackwood’s shoulder off the bar to bring the score to 3-0 going into the first intermission. Nathan Mackinnon found the back of the net for the 13th time this season to open the scoring in the middle frame. The Sharks got on the board when Tomas Hertl lit the lamp on the power play in the second period bringing the score to 4-1 going into the final frame. Ryan Johansen hit the double-digit mark for goals when he slammed home a rebound early in the third period. Hertl found the net for the second time in the game on the powerplay to cut the score to 5-2. MacKinnon lit the lamp for the final time in the game when he tallied an empty-net goal. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 25-of-27 shots en route to his 15th win of the season.
AVS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
MacKinnon extended his point streak to 15 games with two goals and two assists against the Sharks, tying his career-high and bringing his home streak to 16-games. The 15-games are tied for the second-longest streak in the NHL this season behind only William Nylander’s 17-game run.
The Centerman’s empty-net goal was his 806th career point, passing Milan Hejduk (805) for the fourth-most points on the Avalanche/Nordiques all-time scoring list (Michel Goulet -946, Peter Stastny-1,048 and Joe Sakic 1,641 are the three players ahead).
Devon Toews registered an assist on Rantanen’s power-play goal. It was the 200th career point for the blueliner.
Rantanen’s 15th goal of the season established a four-game point streak. He has collected three goals and five assists in that span. Rantanen (15g/24a) ranks tied for eighth in the NHL in points.
Georgiev became the first Avalanche/Nordiques netminder to record 40 wins in a calendar year. Patrick Roy previously held that record with 39 over the course of the year 2000.
HISTORY
The Avalanche/Nordiques own a 78-56-9-8 all-time record against the Blackhawks, with a 43-23-6-4 mark at home. Colorado won the first contest between the two teams this season 4-0 in their first home game of the campaign. The Avs are 5-1-1 in their last seven trips to the United Center, outscoring them 27-18. The Avalanche are 15-3-3 in their past 21 games overall against the Blackhawks, outscoring them 81-43 in those contests. MacKinnon has registered a point per game pace against the Chicago in his career recording 37 points in 37 games played against Chicago. Johansen has recorded 30 points (9g/21a) against the Blackhawks in his career. The 30 points are tied for the most he has collected against any franchise (San Jose).
CHASED BY THE CANUCKS
The Chicago Blackhawks dropped their fourth straight game at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 at the United Center on Sunday night. Nick Foligno kicked off the scoring when he found the back of the net for the fifth time this season. Elias Pettersson leveled the game at one, when he hammered a one-time shot past Petr Mrazek on the power play. Foligno lit the lamp once more in the second frame, this time on the power play to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead. Vancouver proceeded to tally three straight from Dakota Joshua, Brock Boeser and Ilya Mikheyev to take a 4-2 lead going into the second intermission. Cole Guttman snapped a shot just over Thatcher Demko’s pad on the blocker side on a power play to bring the game within one. However, the push from the Hawks was not enough as the Canucks held onto the lead with 25 saves from Demko.
HOT HAWKS
Connor Bedard leads the Blackhawks in points and goals with 26 points and 12 goals this campaign. The first overall pick paces all rookies in scoring.
Philipp Kurashev has recorded 17 points this season (6g/11a). His 17 points trails only his 2022-23 campaign, where he recorded 25 points (9g/16a) in 70 appearances.
NUMBERS GAME
10
MacKinnon registered 10 points (3g/7a) over last week’s four contests to earn the NHL’s First Star of the Week.
78
Colorado has recorded 78 wins against the Blackhawks in the franchise’s history. The 78 wins are the fourth-most against any franchise (Canucks -80, Hurricanes -80 and the Oilers -82 are the three other teams the Avs have more wins against).
16
Rantanen is tied for the eight-most power-play points in the NHL this season with 16 (4g/12a).
QUOTE(S) THAT LEFT A MARK
“I don’t know, I just feel confident in what I am doing. I feel confident in how the team plays and I feel like I am more a part of it now and can do my thing and just play. We have such a good team, the defensemen do such a good job at getting the puck out and giving the forwards chances to create offense.”
- Colorado LW Jonathan Drouin on his recent play
