Coach Patrick Roy’s Avalanche was outshot 54-24 but wins 2-0 at Chicago:
CHICAGO — The evolving game story is . A re-write should post soon at that link, with information and quotes from the locker room.
Nathan MacKinnon had a multiple-point game with his seventh goal of the season and 17th assist. He heated up en route to his Calder Trophy-winning season last January:
Quotes from Chicago PR:
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville: “We talked about it the last couple of days, giving up the first goal, getting off to poor starts. Today, you couldn’t even call it a poor start. You’re down, you don’t even know you’re in the game and you’re down 2-0 … The third period, we put everything at the net, including bodies, which we didn’t do a good job of the first 40 minutes. But he made a couple of big saves in the third period with traffic.”
Chicago F Patrick Sharp: “Itap frustrating. I think we can do a better job of getting to the net. I think the most frustrating part is the way we started the game again. Being down 2-0 quick like that changes the whole way the game is going to be played from there on out. We did generate a lot of shots on net. The second and third opportunities are where we needed to capitalize.”
Semyon Varlamov saves 54 shots as the Avs shut out Chicago: by
— Denver Post Sports (@DPostSports)
Noteworthy: Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson (two shots off iron) played a game-high 26:36, more than Chicago ice-time leader Duncan Keith (26:29). Avs center Matt Duchene (15:02) and defenseman Tyson Barrie (14:15) didn’t play as much as usual. … John Mitchell (two assists, plus-2) was a solid No. 2 star, right there with MacKinnon (goal, assist). … The Blackhawks’ shot total was their season high, one shy of the NHL single-game high this season, and they are the only NHL team to produce 50 shots in multiple games. Every Chicago player produced a shot, and Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith combined for 22.
