DENVER — No matter who won the game Saturday night at Ball Arena, there would’ve been a long list of adjustments made for their next time out. It was an ugly 60 minutes of hockey.
The Chicago Blackhawks put little pressure on goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, while the Colorado Avalanche spent most of the night struggling to get past goalie Spencer Knight. The question was who would take advantage of a crucial mistake.
The answer would be the NHL-best Avalanche. They didn’t have their A-game, but they were good enough for a 3-1 win against a Hawks team that appeared still to be shaking off the rust from the three-week Olympic break.
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“It’s just not fun, you want to get a win,” captain Nick Foligno said. “It’s just an understanding of what it takes at this time of the year to really dig in.”
It was the Hawks’ second straight loss since the break and eighth in nine games, dropping them to 22-28-9 and making their already slim playoff odds even longer.
“We’re at a spot where we want to get better at both sides of it, we want to create more (and) we want to give up a little bit less,” Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “Against a high-powered team tonight, (we) certainly got some chances and (Knight) was good, but we also did a good job bending but not breaking.”
The Hawks scored a power-play goal for the second straight game, this time from Connor Bedard at 6 minutes, 31 seconds of the first period for a 1-0 lead. It was his 25th of the season, extending a career high, to pull him within one of team leader Tyler Bertuzzi.
And it was only Bedard who produced versus the Avs (39-10-9), a common theme this season. If the Hawks want to become the winning group they’ve preached about, someone else has to appear on the stat sheet consistently.
“We need more depth scoring for sure,” Blashill said. “We were close to having a lot of chances and we didn’t handle the puck great. There were opportunities for offense there that we weren’t able to take advantage of.”
Added Foligno: “Can’t just be on Connor, he’s doing his job. He’s getting scoring chances (and) making plays. It’s on the rest of us to pick it up and find a way to help him out, give him some run support and that’s only going to make our team better.”
Knight, who made 32 saves, returned to his early-season form of keeping his team afloat as the Avs sent breakaway shots his way. It was his highest save percentage (.941) since his shutout against the Winnipeg Jets in Jonathan Toews’ United Center return Jan. 19.
“We played a pretty mature game, I just think that we’ve got to stick to our game plan for a full 60 and go with the ebbs and flows of the game,” Knight said. “Colorado has some of the best players in the world, (so) to be in a tight game with them is good for us to learn what it means to be an NHL hockey team.”
The dam broke at the end of the second period when defenseman Cale Makar found a hole in the Hawks defense and tied the game at 1 with 8.3 seconds left.
Knight saved a third-period shot but didn’t control the puck, and Avs center Gavin Brindley pounced on it and scored at 7:31 to give the Avs the lead for good. Makar scored his second of the night, an empty-netter with 1:27 to play to seal the win.
Defenseman Sam Rinzel was a late scratch because of an illness, and his status for Sunday’s game is unknown. Kevin Korchinski replaced him in the lineup but received little ice time, skating for only 8:24.
Korchinski’s role with the Hawks seems to be not having one. This was his first game action since his recall from Rockford on Feb. 18 after Wyatt Kaiser’s injury and only the third appearance this season for the 21-year-old.
“This is a hard team to (succeed) against because when (Nathan) MacKinnon or that (Brock) Nelson line come out, those are real top lines, so we’re trying to put him in a position to succeed,” Blashill said of Korchinski. “Then you have all those penalty kills, and he’s not one of our top two killers on that left side.
“I thought he played better and got a little more ice time as the game went along. He did a decent job.”
Alex Vlasic and Matt Grzelcyk handled the most ice time in the six-defenseman lineup, skating for 23:09 and 22:17, respectively.
The Hawks won’t have much time to dwell on the loss. They traveled to Salt Lake City after the game for a Sunday afternoon matchup with the Utah Mammoth (3 p.m., CHSN). It will be the first of three meetings between the teams in 12 days.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to go back again and flush this one and go right at it tomorrow,” Foligno said, “less than 24 hours against a good team that plays almost similar with how (the Avs) can be. If we just get to our game quick, hopefully we can get the result we want this time.”