Avalanche work Hawks, keep season-starting hot streak alive

DENVER—For the second time in two games Logan O’Connor scored a game-winning short-handed goal as the Colorado Avalanche rolled to a win.

Unlike Tuesday’s tilt against playoff foes Seattle, Colorado hosted their home opener against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks and the No. 1 overall pick from June’s NHL Draft Connor Bedard. The Hawks quick start was easily erased by an avalanche of skill, speed, savvy, strength and effort as Colorado rolled to a 4-0 win.

The Avs scrambly beginning ended when Bedard was sandwiched by Miles Wood and Ross Colton halfway through the first period. In the same sequence, a Bowen Byram mistake for dumping the puck over the glass gave Chicago a powerplay. Little over a minute later Josh Manson took advantage of a loose puck on his blue line during a Blackhawks line change, it ended with a tip from Andrew Cogliano to O’Connor for a breakaway and glove-side goal.

“I liked the way we checked after the first 10 minutes, I thought we were a little bit sloppy making too much happen and not direct enough,” Jared Bednar said postgame. “Then we had the longest period yet where we got into our offense rhythm of playing north, putting pucks in and retrieving them.”

Several minutes later Colorado’s pressure netted them a man advantage and Ryan Johansen netted his first in burgundy, batting in a dirty goal off a pretty powerplay from Lehkonen and Mikko Rantanen. The Avs added a beauty in the second when Valeri Nichushkin found Devon Toews for his first of the season. And then Nathan MacKinnon joined the party with the team’s fourth and Alexandar Georgiev shut the door, recording a shutout. He only faced 18 shots, as Colorado lapped the Hawks with 41.

“We’re getting there, it’s a lot of fun to play that way—on the attack all night and you do the right things in checking and get right back on the attack,” Bednar said.

On the night Bedard debuted in Denver, it was 16 years to the date of former Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews double deke goal against the Avalanche that awed color man Peter McNab to proclaim, “This is the type of talent that brings a franchise back from the dead.” Revived were the Hawks, a bad franchise that went on to win three Stanley Cups in the coming years. Now Chicago is in a similar situation, deep in a rebuild after those peaks. Unlike Toews and McNab, the ultra-talent Bedard was so quiet against the behemoth Avs that he was held without a single shot attempt. The game signified just how far the once daunting Hawks have fallen, losing 10 of their last 12 against Colorado, and just how far ahead the Avalanche is compared to one of their Central rivals.

The Avs top their division and all the league for that matter with a 4-0 start to 2023-24.

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