Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, Cale Makar and Jonathan Drouin each had a goal and an assist and Justus Annunen made 37 saves as the Colorado Avalanche routed the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 on Monday in Denver.
Chicago was shut out by Colorado for the second time in five days while losing its seventh game in a row overall (0-5-2). The Blackhawks haven’t won on the road since Nov. 9 at Tampa Bay, a 22-game skid (0-21-1).
MacKinnon provided the only scoring the Avalanche needed at 12:31 of the first period. Chicago’s Jason Dickinson unsuccessfully sprawled to intercept a cross-ice pass from Devon Toews to MacKinnon, leaving plenty of room for MacKinnon to skate through the right circle and beat Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek with a wrist shot.
Drouin made it 2-0 less than five minutes later, wristing a shot past Mrazek following a Blackhawks turnover in the neutral zone.
Offense remained a difficult proposition for the Blackhawks, who were blanked for the ninth time this season — with Colorado doing the trick on three occasions.
Chicago needed nearly eight minutes to register a shot on goal against Annunen, but the drought still produced a scoring chance. Annunen turned aside a Taylor Raddysh tip-in attempt before denying Ryan Donato twice in short succession.
Annunen was especially sharp early in the second period, when he stopped Connor Bedard on a breakaway.
After losing three of his first four starts this season, Annunen has defeated the Blackhawks two times in a row, stopping all 61 shots he has faced.
Colorado, which outscored Chicago 16-3 to win three of four meetings between the teams this season, put the game out of reach when Makar and Zach Parise scored in a five-minute span in the second period.
MacKinnon capped the scoring with a power-play goal at 15:35 of the third. Nick Foligno nearly ended the shutout bid in the final minute, but Annunen stopped a point-blank chance with a right-pad save.
Mrazek made 32 saves.
The Avalanche bolstered their NHL-best home record, improving to 24-6-0 at Ball Arena.
MacKinnon extended his point streak to 10 games and has at least one point in all 30 home games this season.
–Field Level Media
