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After a putrid performance against the lowly Buffalo Sabres in their last outing, the Chicago Blackhawks responded with a much-improved showing against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
For 40 of the 60 minutes at the United Center, the Blackhawks got the better of the Avalanche, a team with an uber-impressive 15-1-5 record coming into the contest. Not only is Colorado the best team in the NHL at the quarter mark of the 2025-26 season, but they also had won eight consecutive games, outscoring their opponents 40-15 during the winning streak.
The Avs were able to make it nine in a row with a 1-0 win over the Blackhawks, thanks to a remarkable effort in net from Scott Wedgewood. Colorado’s No. 1 netminder made 22 saves to shutout Chicago for the first time this season. Wedgewood now has two shutouts in his last three starts against the Blackhawks.
“We can be both happy with the process, not satisfied with the result,” Jason Dickinson said after the game. “Would love for us to get the win, even scrap out a point. A divisional matchup like that, everything matters. It sucks, but for the most part, [there’s] a lot of good clips that we can go back and watch… it didn’t feel like we gave up a whole lot, especially in the first and third.”
The game started with a surge from the Blackhawks in the opening 20 minutes, as they led 11-2 in shots on goal and 12-4 in scoring chances in the first period. Ryan Greene, in particular, had three or four high-quality opportunities to open the scoring, but Wedgewood found a way to stop everything fired in his direction. Chicago didn’t capitalize on its dominant play out of the gate, and that came back to haunt them in a low-scoring affair.
The game’s lone goal was scored by stud defenseman Cale Makar late in the second period, which was heavily controlled by Colorado. As strong as the Blackhawks were in the first stanza, they were equally as poor in the second, getting outshot 19-1. The Avalanche found their footing out of the first intermission, and they took control after a shaky start.
But despite getting heavily outplayed in the second period, the young Blackhawks once again showed their resiliency and fought back hard in the final frame. The home squad created the better of the opportunities and made a respectable late charge, only for Wedgewood to come up clutch for Colorado time and time again.
While the final result isn’t ideal, and there is no such thing as moral victories for this bunch, they took the NHL’s top club down to the wire in the first meeting of the season. That certainly counts for something, even if the Blackhawks have now lost three consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season.
“I think if we repeat that performance, we’re winning lots of games,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “The other team is going to push back, that’s just the reality of life. But if you look at where we were to start the game, I thought we did an excellent job in our structure, an excellent job of some of the things we talked about this morning that we didn’t do in Buffalo. We had real, real chances in the first, I think the better of the chances in the comparisons between the two periods, and didn’t score… We just have to stay with it.”
Here are the highlights from the 1-0 loss on Sunday, which drops the Blackhawks to 10-8-4 on the year.
Connor Bedard and Nathan MacKinnon were on the ice battling against one another quite frequently on Sunday. Bedard got the better of MacKinnon on the opening faceoff, which led to a threating scoring chance for Greene just seconds into game.
Full opening shift for Connor Bedard, who sets up Greene for a quality shot and then flies back to interrupt Necas' rush pic.twitter.com/EvF22inDsH
The Blackhawks top line of Greene, Bedard, and Tyler Bertuzzi was buzzing early. Bedard and Bertuzzi made two dynamite passes to find Greene in the slot again, but Wedgewood managed to get juuuust enough of the shot to keep the game scoreless.
What a chance for Ryan Greene off two great passes from Bertuzzi and Bedard pic.twitter.com/KVeZkYPraZ
Oliver Moore, as he usually does, was flying around the ice in the first period. His wheels helped generate an odd-man rush with Teuvo Teravainen, but the former first-round picks shot rang off the crossbar. SO close to his third NHL goal.
Oliver Moore with a shot on a 2-on-1 that rings off the bar pic.twitter.com/zT4DngaGqh
Greene is surely going to be kicking himself for all his missed chances early in the contest. With just under four minutes remaining, Bertuzzi made another excellent pass to find Greene all alone in front… but he fired the shot wide. D’OH!
Connor Bedard with a steal on the forecheck that leads to another high-quality chance for Ryan Greene pic.twitter.com/DbSbd1iIKS
Greene led all Blackhawks players with four shot attempts, three shots on goal, and four individual scoring chances in just over five minutes of ice time in the period. All he was missing was the finished product.
In a Central Division matchup, you would expect for the game to get a little chippy at some point. There wasn’t much tension or bad blood in the first period, but that changed early in the second.
Connor Murphy mixed it up with big Avs’ defenseman Josh Manson after the play in the Blackhawks zone. Just a few moments later, Murphy exchanged pleasantries with Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog after he laid a big hit on Wyatt Kaiser.
Connor Murphy jumps in to defend Wyatt Kaiser after he took a big hit from Gabe Landeskog pic.twitter.com/BvYiE0tc9u
The Blackhawks have been hosed by a few penalty calls in recent games, and that didn’t change on Sunday. Near the midway point of the contest, Dickinson was sent to the sin bin for “slashing” Artturi Lehknonen. The only reason Dickinson was sent off here was because Lehkonen’s stick was snapped. This didn’t look like much of anything.
Jason Dickinson to the box for this… slash pic.twitter.com/bJ9pXAteV9
After successfully killing off the penalty, a scary incident occurred involving Bedard. Zakhar Bardakov tried dumping the puck into the offensive zone, but he caught Bedard up near the face with his attempt. Fortunately, Bedard toughed it out and remained on the Blackhawks bench. It appeared that he was actually hit in the neck/collarbone area, and not the face. Bedard stayed in the game and did not miss a shift.
Bedard takes a puck right to the collarbone. Luckily, it doesn't look like anything too bad and he's staying on the bench pic.twitter.com/BplgZHNdwE
A play that Spencer Knight would surely want back resulted in the only goal of the game for Colorado. Knight played the puck from his crease but threw a muffin of a pass directly to Avalanche forward Tristen Nielsen. Makar scooped up Nielsen’s rebound and beat Knight with a shot from the left circle to make it 1-0. That proved to be costly.
Cale Makar snipes home the rebound to open the scoring pic.twitter.com/oVpSczcNZD
The Blackhawks generated plenty of offensive zone time during the third period, but the Avalanche did a sensational job of keeping most of their shot attempts to the outside.
Their most dangerous opportunities of the period came with under five minutes to play, starting with Moore making a great play to find Teravainen at the left dot. Moore patiently waited for the Avalanche defenders to attack, and that’s when he slipped a pass to Teravainen for a quick one-timer. Wedgewood reacted perfectly and slid across the crease to make the save.
Oliver Moore feeds Teuvo Teravainen for the Blackhawks best chance of the period pic.twitter.com/tbkk6gkPFH
One of the few chances created by Colorado in the period came seconds after Teravainen’s bid. Ross Colton got in behind Wyatt Kaiser, but Knight stopped his stuff attempt with a right-pad save to keep his team down by only one goal.
Huge stop by Spencer Knight to keep this a one-goal game pic.twitter.com/zah9Fq0npp
Last time the Blackhawks were on home ice, referee Justin Kea made a controversial penalty call on Bedard in the dwindling moments of the game. Well, the same thing nearly happened again on Sunday, as Bertuzzi was whistled for “tripping” Manson with two minutes remaining. Bertuzzi, the Blackhawks’ bench, and the fans in attendance were livid with the penalty call.
However, after the officials gathered together to discuss the play, they ruled that Manson lost an edge and WAS NOT tripped by Bertuzzi. The gritty forward was correctly pulled out of the penalty box, much to everyone’s delight. That was the proper decision.
Tyler Bertuzzi is livid as he gets called for a penalty when it was MacKinnon's stick that tripped Manson pic.twitter.com/sjOgaMJbDQ
Unfortunately, it didn’t end up mattering much, as Wedgewood stood tall from start to finish to shutout Chicago. Frank Nazar had one final chance to even up the score, but yet again, Wedgewood came up huge for Colorado.
Frank Nazar robbed by Wedgewood looking for the tying goal pic.twitter.com/zDg9JmuQ7B
The Blackhawks got goalie’d on Sunday night, but they impressively hung around with the Avalanche for most of the game. Like Blashill said, if they continue to play at that caliber, better days are ahead for the team.
“From a numbers standpoint, we made progress,” Blashill said. “We just have to stay with it. Wednesday we have to play a similar game but play a little better in the second and if [we] do that, I think [we’re] putting yourself in a position to win games.”
Chicago returns to play on Wednesday for another Central Division matchup with the Minnesota Wild at the United Center.
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Blackhawks vs. Avalanche: Dickinson & Burakovsky Notes, Lineups, & How To Watch
Blackhawks vs. Avalanche: Dickinson & Burakovsky Notes, Lineups, & How To Watch
Jack’s Daily: Lardis Regains Rookie Scoring Lead; Avalanche Extend Winning Streak
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