Schwartz, Kadri each scores twice, Avalanche top Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Nazem Kadri and Jaden Schwartz each scored two goals for the Colorado Avalanche in a 5-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Monday.

T.J. Hughes had two assists and Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves for the Avalanche (9-5-1), who have won three in a row and are 4-1-0 in their past five games.

Colorado fell behind 2-0 in the first period and rallied with five straight goals.

“It was like a weird start because, all of a sudden, they score on the first shot of the game on a fluky bounce,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “All of a sudden, you’re down in a hole quick, just a few minutes. At that point, you know, it’s so much hockey left, and it’s a lot of hockey for them to hang on to a two-goal lead.”

Wyatt Kaiser and Roman Kantserov each scored, and Spencer Knight made 24 saves for the Blackhawks (4-10-1), who have lost three in a row (0-2-1) and are 1-5-1 in their past seven games.

Chicago forward Patrick Kane left the game at 14:53 of the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

“He’s going to miss the next couple of games, for sure,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s a loss, but again, this is the NHL, so you’re going to lose guys and you have to find a way for other guys to step in.”

Just 57 seconds into the game, Kaiser gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. His shot from the blue line hit off the stick of Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar and slid past Blackwood’s right skate despite Makar's last-ditch effort to stop the puck from going in.

Kantserov finished a 2-on-1 breakaway with Connor Bedard to put the Blackhawks ahead 2-0 at 7:05. Bedard carried the puck into the offensive zone on the left side and passed to Kantserov, who scored on a one-timer while going to one knee in the right face-off circle.

“We come out strong and got to just hold onto it,” Bedard said. “I think it’s little blips of the game. I was saying that before. We’ll have pushes, we’ll have stretches and then we’ll kind of sit back a little bit and maybe just too many ups and downs in our play. Once we find our consistency, we’ve seen it in games this year where we have it and we’re a tough team to play. We just have to find it for the whole duration of the match.”

Martin Necas looked to score at 13:22, but the goal was overturned for goaltender interference against Landeskog following a coach's challenge.

“I thought we had a little bit of a sleepy start, made a couple of mistakes,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Turnover on the breakout, turnover high in the O-zone play. Real good transition team and rush team in Chicago. They made us pay for it. Then we kind of buckled down a little bit and felt the urgency of our game rise right away, and we responded back pretty quickly. The rest of the game was OK for me. It was pretty good.”

Kadri brought the Avalanche to within 2-1 at 15:23. Landeskog's sharp-angle shot went short side on Knight, who made the initial save, but a diving Kadri poked the puck behind the goalie and past the line.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I played a little bit of Plinko there in the crease,” Kadri said. “I’m not quite sure what happened. Just the act of kind of desperation before the goaltender realized it was right beside him. I just tried to give it some effort and poke it in. Got fortunate on that one.”

Schwartz tied the game at 2-2 just 26 seconds later, scoring from the left circle after he took a feed from Hughes, who was in the left corner, at 15:49.

Kadri scored his second of the game to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 13:38 of the second period. Makar fired the puck in from the high slot, and Kadri picked it out of the air and tipped it in.

Schwartz’s second goal of the game at 19:49 put Colorado ahead 4-2. Sam Malinski's wrist shot from just inside the blue line deflected off Schwartz's stick in front and through Knight's five-hole.

Devon Toews scored into an empty net at 17:38 for the 5-2 final.

"I’ve had zero issues with our compete level with the exception of two games, and I’ve said that publicly,” Blashill said. “The Utah game (a 6-0 loss on Oct. 1) and the Detroit game (a 4-1 loss on Oct. 29) are the only games in which I think our compete level wasn’t good enough. I don’t know why that narrative’s out there. I’ve been super honest with you guys when I feel the compete level’s not good enough. I haven’t sugarcoated it. Those two games, it wasn’t good enough.

“The other team’s trying too, and they’re obviously a team that most people consider a Stanley Cup contender. I thought our compete level was absolutely fine tonight. I thought it was good for a lot of the game. Does that mean we didn’t have any mistakes? Of course we had mistakes. So we have to build off that.”

NOTES: The Avalanche won their sixth straight meeting against the Blackhawks dating to March 10, 2025, their second-longest active run versus one opponent (seven games vs. Seattle Kraken). … Makar recorded his 384th career assist and tied Anton Stastny for eighth most in Avalanche franchise history. … Kaiser scored the fastest game-opening goal by a Blackhawks defenseman since March 4, 2023 (Seth Jones at 0:37). … Chicago defenseman Bowen Byram missed his eighth straight game because of an upper-body injury. Blashill said Byram will see a specialist to get him over the “final hurdle.”