Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche took on the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time this season. While the Avs found themselves in a multi-goal deficit early yet again, they would ultimately come away with a 5-2 win.
Let's take a look at all the action from tonight!
As previously mentioed, Colorado found themselves in a multi-goal deficet early on in this game, as the Blackhawks scored two goals not even halfway through the period, with the first goal coming not even a minute into the game off of an incredibly fluky play, which saw Cale Makar deflect a shot from Wyatt Kaiser past Mackenzie Blackwood.
Shortly after, Roman Kantserov would score on a two-on-one rush off of a Nazem Kadri turnover to make it 2-0, Chicago, as he just put a great shot past Blackwood, and that would be all of the goals that the Blackhawks would score on the night.
If there's one thing that Colorado has historically known how to do, it's score quickly. That's exactly what they do before the first period ends, tying the game at 2-2, with two goals just 26 seconds apart. Nazem Kadri redeemed his earlier snafu and scored his first of the night first, as he made an incredible diving play to poke the puck past Spencer Knight and get the Avs on the board.
Jaden Schwartz scored just 26 seconds later, as he picked a corner and was able to get the puck past the short-side of Knight to tie the game at 2-2.
Kadri and Schwartz would each score again in the second period to give Colorado a 4-2 lead over Chicago heading into the third period. Kadri's second goal of the night would come off a deflection on the power play, and Schwartz's second would also come off of a deflected puck, which just dribbled into the net past Knight with under a minute to go in the period.
The game was essentially over before the final 20 minutes of play even began but Devon Toews would get his fifth goal of the season with an empty netter in this period, for a final score of 5-2.
After being down 2-0 early in the first period, this game looked like it could have gone the same way that Colorado's game against Nashville went the other week, where Nashville just ran away with it, and Colorado went away quietly. Of course, the opposite happened here tonight, and I'm glad to see that it did. Instead of going away quietly and not being able to stay composed against a team they should beat, Colorado kept trying, stayed engaged in the game, and were eventually rewarded for their efforts and ended up winning this game, as they should have.
The middle six was awesome to watch tonight, with Kadri and Schwartz obviously being the standouts here tonight, each scoring two goals. Schwartz is a player who has continued to pleasantly surprise me with just how good his fit is on this team as the season goes on, and tonight was no different. It's always awesome to see your middle six players step up to the challenge when your top players aren't taking over games, which is exactly what Kadri and Schwartz did tonight.
The Avalanche face the Columbus Blue Jackets on the second night of a back-to-back tomorrow night. Puck drop will be at 5:00 p.m. MT.
