Avalanche Clinch Playoff Berth, Defeat Blackhawks 4-1

The Chicago Blackhawks had their second leg of a back-to-back on Friday night. After a narrow 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, they returned home to take on the Colorado Avalanche.

Consecutive days with games against two of the top five teams in the NHL is never an easy stretch, but it’s a good measuring stick for the young Blackhawks.

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Before the game began, Jeff Blashill announced that Andrew Mangiapane and Louis Crevier would be out with short-term injuries that they suffered in St. Paul against the Wild.

Wearing their black alternate sweaters for the last time in 2025-26, the Blackhawks started Arvid Soderblom in net for the first time since Spencer Knight’s illness ended.

In the first period, the Blackhawks were caved in by the Avalanche. Colorado outshot Chicago 20-5 and took a 2-0 lead into intermission thanks to goals by Marty Necas and Brock Nelson.

At that point, it started to seem like it was going to be a tough night for the Blackhawks against the team that’s been at the top of the NHL standings all season.

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The second period was somewhat of a different story. The Blackhawks came out and looked like an entirely different team for a while.

After a handful of golden opportunities for the Hawks early in the middle frame, Wyatt Kaiser split the defense, accepted a pass from Ryan Greene, and scored to get his team on the board.

Following the goal, the Blackhawks started to look more like their first-period selves. In the second period, the Avalanche outshot them 15-6.

That’s a 35-11 advantage through 40 minutes. Without Arvid Soderblom, they would not have been within one goal at that point.

In the third period, the Avalanche were awarded a power play within the first minute. Nazem Kadri, their last acquisition ahead of the trade deadline, made it 3-1 with the man-advantage. At 11:26 of the third, for good measure, Valeri Nichushkin made it 4-1 in favor of the Avalanche.

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The 4-1 score would hold as the final of Colorado. The final shot count was 49-20 Colorado, which is not a recipe for victory from Chicago’s perspective.

The Blackhawks relinquished two power-play goals to the Avalanche in the loss. They will wake up on Saturday outside of first place in the penalty kill rankings for the first time in months.

Colorado came in with the 29th ranked power play percentage (despite all of their firepower), but they made easy work of the Blackhawks’ PK. It has been more of a struggle to kill penalties since trading Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno, and Connor Murphy.

In the win, Colorado became the first team in the NHL to reach 100 points in the standings. That was also good enough to make them the first team to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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It’s been a good month for the Blackhawks with all things considered, but games like this show how much more development is needed for them to be a legitimate playoff threat.

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