Denis Malgin had two goals and an assist, Alexandar Georgiev turned away 27 shots for his fifth shutout of the season and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 in Denver on Monday night.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist and Logan O’Connor and Kurtis MacDermid also scored goals.
Georgiev notched the 13th shutout of his career to help Colorado win its sixth straight. The Avalanche (41-22-6, 88 points) have moved into a tie with Minnesota for second place in the Central Division.
Dallas is in first place with 89 points, but Colorado has played one less game than the Stars and Wild.
Alex Stalock made 27 saves for the Blackhawks (24-40-6, 54 points), who have lost two in a row.
Colorado defenseman Cale Makar was scratched for an undisclosed issue.
Makar’s absence gave MacDermid a chance to play, and he made the most of it early in the first period. His shot through traffic went off the knee of Chicago defenseman Ian Mitchell and caromed by Stalock at 2:41 to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.
It was his first goal of the season.
Colorado nearly went ahead by two later in the first, but Stalock denied Nathan MacKinnon when he got the shaft of his stick on MacKinnon’s rebound shot.
Georgiev kept it a 1-0 game when he slid over to make a save on Andreas Athanasiou late in the first period.
The Avalanche killed off a penalty and then added to their lead. Malgin carried the puck into the Blackhawks’ zone, gave Valeri Nichuskin the puck with a drop pass, got it back and beat Stalock with a sharp-angle shot at 6:17 of the second period.
Colorado struck again on its first and only power play when J.T. Compher slid a pass to Rantanen in the right circle, and Rantanen’s wrister got by Stalock at 10:54. It was his team-leading 47th goal of the season.
O’Connor’s eighth goal of the season at 13:33 of the third made it 4-0 and 14 seconds later Malgin scored his second of the night and 10th of the season.
–Field Level Media
