MacKinnon reaches 100 points, Avalanche cruise past Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to reach 100 points this season for the Colorado Avalanche, who defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 at United Center on Thursday.

MacKinnon reached the mark in his 61st game by scoring at 17:32 of the third period to give Colorado a 5-0 lead. He became the second NHL player with 100 points this season, joining Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (104).

“Impressive,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon reaching 100 points (36 goals, 64 assists). “You hit that mark at this point in the season, it’s really incredible. We’ve seen players around the League do it in the past. I think [Tampa Bay’s Nikita] Kucherov hit it the other night.

“But [MacKinnon] was such a good player for us for so long and then didn’t break 100. I look back on those years and it just shows how good he is this year. You hit 100 at this point, last year he had 111 or something (in 71 games), he’s already at 100, it’s impressive because for years, we’re like, ‘Man, Nate’s an incredible player, top point producer, really consistent at what he does,’ and somehow he’s finding a way to produce even more now.”

MacKinnon’s assist on Ross Colton’s second-period goal gave him 539 for his NHL career, moving him into third place past Peter Forsberg on the franchise’s all-time list.

Zach Parise had two goals and an assist, and Justus Annunen made 24 saves in his first NHL shutout for the Avalanche (37-19-5), who have won four of their past six. Cale Makar had two assists.

“I know what [my teammates] want and what they expect, so just trying to help them,” Annunen said. “They were a huge help today. We played pretty good today.”

Petr Mrazek made 29 saves for the Blackhawks (15-40-5), who are 1-10-3 in their past 14 games.

“That was a tough one, honestly,” Chicago defenseman Jarred Tinordi said. “That one hurts. I don’t think we responded well when we got down. I think we got tentative. We were just kind of watching them make plays, watching them exit the zone. And it’s frustrating.

“I think we’ve put in some good efforts. We were getting close. We were looking to get over that hump tonight, and we didn’t have it. We didn’t do it.”

Parise gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 17:58 of the first period. Defenseman Jack Johnson got past Blackhawks forward Anthony Beauvillier along the left-wing boards and skated the puck into the Chicago zone. He passed into the slot for Parise, who scored on a wrist shot.

“It was a really good play by [Johnson] to push the guy out of the zone, and he caught him flat-footed and we got ourselves a 2-on-1,” Parise said. “He almost faked me out with a pass. I wasn’t expecting that. It was a really nice play by him.”

Colton made it 2-0 on the power play at 6:56 of the second after following the rebound of his own shot from the slot and scoring from in front of the net.

Parise extended it to 3-0 at 7:38 when he carried the puck through the slot on a setup from Ryan Johansen and backhanded it into the crease from behind the net.

Devon Toews pushed it to 4-0 at 19:58, scoring from the left face-off circle.

“We’ve got to go back and look at how we started the game,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “I thought we skated very well and played well. It's disappointing at the end of the [first] period to give that one up. We started chasing the game a little bit then and didn't have the same type of execution defensively against them. Really, that led to not getting much offense going either.

“They're a great team. I think we opened up a little bit in the second period and got off a bit of our game plan, which we played pretty good in the first period, and then that just lets them go.”

NOTES: MacKinnon became the first player in Avalanche history (since 1995-96) and fourth in franchise history with 100 points in two or more consecutive seasons, following Peter Stastny (six from 1980-86), Michel Goulet (two from 1982-84) and Joe Sakic (two from 1989-91), who all achieved the feat with the Quebec Nordiques. … Makar’s first assist, on Toews’ goal, gave him 50 for the season, making him the first defenseman in team history with multiple seasons of at least 50 assists. He had 58 in 2021-22.