RECAP: Blackhawks Snap 5-Game Avalanche Win Streak

DENVER -- Ryan Donato had two goals and an assist, and the Chicago Blackhawks snapped a four-game skid with a win 5-2 against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Monday.

The Avalanche had won five straight games after an 0-4-0 start to the season.

Philipp Kurashev, Lukas Reichel and Ilya Mikheyev each scored for the Blackhawks (3-6-1), and Jason Dickinson had two assists. Petr Mrazek made 24 saves.

“I think we deserved what we got tonight, and there's been nights that we probably didn't deserve the final fate,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “We could have easily had a few more wins, and I think this team and the whole organization is tired of the moral victories. So tonight was a really big step for us to take a real victory and put it in the back of our minds how we did it.”

Casey Mittelstadt and Nathan MacKinnon each scored for the Avalanche (5-5-0). MacKinnon and Cale Makar each extended their season-opening point streak to 10 games, and Alexandar Georgiev made 21 saves.

Colorado was playing in the second game of a back-to-back after winning 5-4 against the Ottawa Senators at Ball Arena on Sunday.

“We were no good, again. We weren't as good as last night, even,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We just looked tired. Execution was bad, mentally not sharp. So it happens. Looked like we didn't have energy, though, right from the drop of the puck.

“We're not looking at moral victories here right now. It wasn't our best game. Needed to be better and it wasn't. It's two in a row.”

Kurashev scored a power-play goal to make it 1-0 at 8:47 of the first period on a slap shot from the top of the left circle.

Mittelstadt tied it 1-1 at 10:16 of the first with a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Mrazek’s blocker.

“I think we made it harder on ourselves than we should have, especially like in the first period,” Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor said. “I felt like we were turning tons of pucks over in the middle of the ice. Couldn't get in on the forecheck, which is sort of the staple of our game right now with the lineup we have.”

Reichel gave Chicago a 2-1 lead when Craig Smith’s shot off the face-off ricocheted off Reichel’s body before trickling past Georgiev at 11:04.

“We've seen one or two [of those] go against us, and it was about time one bounced in for us,” Richardson said. “The Reichel one, I thought, was big.”

Donato extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:56 of the first when he backhanded Dickinson’s rebound at the top of the crease.

“You go hard to the net, and you say your prayers. The puck can go anywhere, and for me, it was a lucky bounce, and I was lucky to put it away,” Donato said. “But getting to those areas is definitely hard. I think we could do more of that, and hopefully, good things happen from that.”

MacKinnon cut it to 3-2 at 19:17, speeding around Seth Jones before driving the net and shooting five-hole while on a 5-on-3 power play.

Donato scored an empty-net goal at 19:02 of the third period to make it 4-2, and Mikheyev added another at 19:41 for the 5-2 final.

“There's so many times the last couple games where we feel like we played pretty well and five minutes we take off, they're back in the game. We just find a way to not finish it off,” Donato said. “Tonight, I think we all came in the locker room after the second and said it wasn't good enough, 'We got to step back up.' There's not much to say other than just getting the job done, and that's kind of what happened tonight.”

Avalanche forward Ross Colton, who leads the team with eight goals this season, left the game at the end of the second period with an undisclosed injury.

“He's out. He took that shot [to the leg in the first],” Bednar said. “He's going to miss some time, but we'll get a better feel on how long, how much time that's going to be, tomorrow or by Wednesday morning.”

NOTES: Makar became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to start a season with points in 10 consecutive games, joining Bobby Orr (1973-74), Doug Wilson (1981-82) and Guy Lapointe (1974-75). Makar is tied with Wilson and Lapointe for the second-longest point streak by a defenseman to open a season in NHL history. … MacKinnon became the eighth player in NHL history with multiple season-opening point streaks of at least 10 games (13 games in 2019-20).