Blackhawks at Avalanche
The Chicago Blackhawks look to ride the momentum of their biggest offensive explosion of the season into Thursday's road contest against the Central Division-rival Colorado Avalanche. Patrick Kane collected a goal and two assists in Tuesday's 7-5 victory over Arizona as the Blackhawks rebounded after sandwiching porous offensive performances around the Christmas break.
"The last few games we haven't had very many (power-play) opportunities, so sometimes you get out of sync," said Kane, who saw his team convert on 3-of-4 chances with the man advantage versus the Coyotes. The 2013 Conn Smythe Trophy winner saw his franchise-best 26-game point streak come to a halt at the hands of the Avalanche in a 3-0 setback on Dec. 15. Semyon Varlamov was simply brilliant in that contest, turning aside all 29 shots he faced to record his seventh consecutive victory over Chicago. The 27-year-old Russian owns an 11-3-0 career mark with three shutouts versus the Blackhawks and is slated to face them again after sitting out Colorado's 6-3 victory over San Jose on Monday.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN Chicago, Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (21-13-4): Duncan Keith scored a goal and set up two others versus the Coyotes to double his point total over the last five games. Fellow defenseman Erik Gustafsson notched an assist in his first contest since being recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League to increase his total to four points in eight games with Chicago. Corey Crawford is in line to make his ninth straight start overall, but the two-time Jennings Trophy winner owns a 4-9-2 career mark with a 3.02 goals-against average versus Colorado.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (18-17-2): Nathan MacKinnon, who secured his second career hat trick versus the Sharks, had two assists in the first meeting with Chicago. Captain Gabriel Landeskog recorded a goal and an assist versus the Blackhawks and secured five points (one goal, four assists) in a four-game stretch before being held off the scoresheet in his last two contests. Landeskog showed his toughness on Monday as he returned to the game after taking a slap shot to the face - with quite the "souvenir" in the process.
OVERTIME
1. Colorado converted four power-play opportunities in its last contest and is 7-for-14 in the last four following a dismal 1-for-26 stretch.
2. Chicago D David Rundblad, who was initially waived on Monday, was assigned to the IceHogs two days later.
3. Avalanche C Matt Duchene scored in the first meeting with the Blackhawks and did so again on Monday, with the latter tally serving as his first point in five games.