Recap: Colorado drops its second game this year against the Blackhawks

Colorado’s top players were no-shows.

Well, that was disappointing, to say the least. The Colorado Avalanche dropped its second game to the Chicago Blackhawks this season, losing by a final score of 3-1 on the first night of a back-to-back.

Let’s take a look back at how it all went down tonight.

First Period

The newest member of this Avalanche team, Juuso Parssinen, would get Colorado on the board first as he was able to net his first goal as an Av. This play started back in Colorado’s defensive zone, where Parssinen challenged Lukas Reichel for the puck and managed to take it away from him. From there, Parssinen would spring himself and race into the offensive zone alongside Casey Mittelstadt and managed to roof the puck past Petr Mrazek.

Colorado couldn’t get another goal after that, which would cost them, as Chicago would tie the game at one with a goal from Ilya Mikheyev. The Avs would turn the puck over deep in their own zone, Mikheyev managed to pick up the puck from there, and he put it past Trent Miner.

Second Period

Colorado’s offensive woes would continue into the second period, as the Blackhawks would score to make it 2-1. Miner, and the whole Avalanche team really, would fail to control a rebound. Frank Nazar would put a rebound past Miner to give Chicago the go-ahead goal.

After that, it looked like Chicago had gone up 3-1 with a goal from Connor Bedard. After a review, the officials determined that he had kicked the puck into the net, keeping the score at 2-1 Blackhawks.

Third Period

Colorado continued to fail to solve Mrazek, and Chicago would get another goal to make it 3-1. Bedard would add on another one to build on Chicago’s lead, and this one would actually count this time around.

Takeaways

I think I speak for just about everyone when I say this: that game was frustrating to watch. They had a pretty decent start, and Jusso Parssinen netted his first goal as an Av, which rocked! But everything went downhill from there. Colorado seemed to play down to Chicago from there on out, and the effort also seemed to take a complete nose-dive after they tied it up as well. The box score will show that Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, and Nathan MacKinnon had a combined two shots on goal tonight. It makes it difficult to win games when the top guys struggle to create production.

Honestly, that’s kind of all there is to say in this game. This team will be fine, they just picked up points in eight straight games and won seven of them. But tonight’s still a missed opportunity, especially when there are two more matchups against Central Division teams on the road trip. They’ll be looking to up the effort tomorrow night against a team that this Avs team is chasing for the top of the division.

Upcoming

Colorado takes on the Minnesota Wild tomorrow night on the second night of a back-to-back. Puck drop will be at 6:00 p.m. MT.