MacKinnon extends point streak to 16 in Avalanche’s loss to Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his point streak to an NHL career-high 16 games for the Colorado Avalanche in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.

MacKinnon has 28 points (eight goals, 20 assists) during his streak, which is the longest active in the NHL. He can tie Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander for the longest point streak this season (17 games) when the Avalanche host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. 

Tyler Johnson scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Ryan Donato had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks (10-20-1), who ended a four-game skid. Connor Bedard and Nikita Zaitsev each had two assists, and Petr Mrazek made 35 saves.

“I think we have to grab it and use it,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said of the win. “We can't just sit on it and think that it just happened. It was a lot of hard work, and the guys stayed focused. Consistency's a word we've been looking for this year, and tonight’s 60 minutes was really good.

“Couple power-play goals by them in the first period, but we made some adjustments, we had a big kill in the second and we stayed out of the box the rest of the way, which was smart. So, I think our guys were focused, which allowed us to play our physical game to the best we could.”

Valeri Nichushkin scored twice for the Avalanche (19-11-2), who had won three of four. Alexandar Georgiev made 19 saves.

“It’s our awareness of what it takes to win hockey games,” Colorado defenseman Devon Toews said. “That’s the difference, having guys in this room self-aware that it takes 60 minutes, a hard game play to play against any team in this league. I don’t care who we’re playing. This league is so good. It’s hard to win any night against any team in this league. You have to show up. We’ve got guys in here who aren’t showing up right now.”

Donato gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 7:29 of the first period, putting in the rebound off Zaitsev’s shot from the right circle. Bedard set up the play with a cross-ice pass to Zaitsev.

“Yeah, it’s a great play,” Donato said of Bedard’s initial setup. “I think when he plays simple and makes a lot of those type of plays, where you can knock a lot of pucks down and create something out of nothing, it’s pretty special. I got the benefit of that tonight. I’ve been praying a lot for something to finally go in and I was lucky it did tonight.”

Nichushkin tied it 1-1 on the power play at 9:22 off a pass in the slot from Jonathan Drouin. MacKinnon had the secondary assist.

Nichushkin gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 11:25 with his second power-play goal, putting in the rebound of his own shot from in front of the crease.

Lukas Reichel tied it 2-2 at 12:56 after taking a pass in the slot from Bedard and putting a wrist shot past the stick of Georgiev.

“Reichel was skating,” Richardson said. “I think that first goal probably gave him a lot of confidence. But even in the first period, he had a really strong play against them along our boards at the hashmarks and got the puck out. Just playing the right way comes back to you and you get some chances. He had some really nice chances in the second period as well.

“It was nice to see him have that. He's been skating and working, but tonight he did all the right little, gritty things and he got rewarded with a goal and a couple other good chances.”

Johnson put the Blackhawks ahead 3-2 at 8:19 of the third on the power play, tipping in a pass from Nick Foligno from the left circle.

The Avalanche played without defenseman Cale Makar and forward Andrew Cogliano, neither of whom made the trip to Chicago because of lower-body injuries.

“We are missing some key guys that play important minutes for us, which doesn’t help,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Every team is at this point, so it’s not an excuse, either. We’ve got 20 capable guys playing tonight. I just think it’s a mindset and a discipline to our game that we’re lacking on certain nights.”

NOTES: MacKinnon’s point streak is tied for the fifth-longest in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … Bedard had his fifth multipoint game of the season, the most among all rookies. … Blackhawks forward Philipp Kurashev was a late scratch because of illness. … Chicago forward Colin Blackwell played in his first game of the season after being out with a lower-body injury. He had three shots on goal in 16:41 of ice time.