DENVER — The Chicago Blackhawks returned to the scene of their season-opening nightmare and held their own — for a while.
The Colorado Avalanche beat the Hawks 2-0 on Monday night at Ball Arena to extend their winning streak to seven games. It wasn’t the demolition back in October, belied by a 4-2 final score, but a loss for the Hawks likely stings as much.
That’s because they had multiple opportunities to grab a lead against the Western Conference leaders. But in the end, they couldn’t solve goaltender Pavel Francouz — or his glove — and didn’t get a point to show for their effort.
“We had some chances early on. Some good looks,” Patrick Kane said. “Would have been nice to take a lead, play with a lead against a team like that. Their goalie played well.
“We probably could have created a little bit more and had a little bit more of a push at the end.”
Defensively, Blackhawks coach Derek King faulted a couple of blown assignments on both Avalanche goals.
“And when you’re playing against a good team like that, two mistakes will cost you,” King said.
Hawks goalie Marc-André Fleury traded some beauties with Francouz, but the Avs took a 1-0 lead in the second period on Nazem Kadri’s power-play goal. Fleury initially stopped Kadri’s rocket, but the puck dribbled over the goal line before Calvin de Haan could sweep it out of danger.
Mikko Rantanen gave the Avalanche all the cushion they needed with a sharp-angled backhander about seven minutes into the third period.
In the first period, the Hawks looked like they might challenge the Avs. They turned some giveaways into rushes and led 5-3 in five-on-five high-danger chances, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
About 6 1/2 minutes into the second, Fleury made a beautiful kick save on Jack Johnson’s blast, then flopped on top of the puck to stop the threat.
But the Avalanche outshot the Hawks 14-7 in the period, and their forecheck eventually broke through and forced a mistake: Seth Jones’ interference penalty against Nicolas Aubé-Kubel.
Nathan MacKinnon made a quick dish to Kadri, and his one-timer leaked through Fleury’s body block.
Meanwhile, the Hawks seemed star-crossed when it came to their opportunities.
De Haan had a breakaway chance 1:39 into the game but was denied by Francouz. Sam Lafferty served up a juicy centering pass to Jonathan Toews, but Francouz stuffed the shot. And Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat just missed connecting on a two-on-one rush.
“We had our opportunities,” King said. “That’s a really good hockey team. If we thought it was going to be easy — and I don’t think we thought it was going to be easy — there was times we competed the right way and other times we dropped our compete level a little lower than it should be, and they capitalized.
“I mean, that’s why they’re one of the best teams in the league.”
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