Colorado Avalanche shutout Chicago Blackhawks in 4-0 win - NHL Update
The Chicago Blackhawks lost their third game in a row on Friday losing 4-0 to the Colorado Avalanche at the United Centre in Chicago.
The Blackhawks still maintain their top position in the Western Conference’s Central Division with 52 points and a 24-13-4 record. Colorado Avalanche who had a great night keeping the Blackhawks offense at bay moved up the Western Conference Rankings as
they continue their hunt for a Stanley Cup Playoff berth. The Avalanche are third in the Northwest Division with a 23-18-1 record.
The Blackhawks looked tired during the game, probably due to the lingering effect of losing on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in overtime. Colorado however, looked fresh and motivated to get a result.
Colorado Avalanche took the lead just three minutes from the end of the first period as David Jones slammed the puck past Blackhawks goal tender Corey Crawford for his eighth of the season.
Crawford was in for a busy night as he saved 18 shots from the Avalanche offense. Colorado doubled their advantage just a minute into the second period with T.J Galiardi scoring into an open net after Paul Stastny set him up with a wonderful pass. The Blackhawks
had still time to make a comeback and tried their best to beat Colorado Avalanche goal tender Semyon Varlamov.
Varlamov however, had other plans and kept out 27 shots from the Blackhawks highly skilled offense to maintain the shutout. Avalanche Coach Joe Sacco was full of praise for his goal tender.
"I thought Varly was solid all night long, but I thought we played a real sound game from start to finish," Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said. "We were ready to play tonight, and when you've got a couple-goal lead in this league, it's hard to come back on.
But that team is very dangerous and we wanted to make sure we stayed with the game plan. We pretty much did that for the whole 60 minutes."
With Varlamov on song the Avalanche attacked all out and got a 3-0 lead at 8:40 of the second period with David Van der Gulik scoring his first goal of the season from a Gabriel Landeskog assist.
Colorado Avalanche shifted down a gear in the third period but still kept the Blackhawks out of their net and put the game to rest late in the period. Chuck Kobasew put the cherry on the cake with the final goal of the game at 18:04 to make it 4-0.
Chicago Blackhawks Coach Joel Quenneville rued his side’s performance saying
"Tonight we didn't deserve anything. We got what we deserved. I know we didn't give up a lot of chances, but look at what we generated. We didn't generate enough."
The Blackhawks will now face the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday and hope that they snap their three game losing streak.
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