Brad Hunt sent a d-to-d feed out to his partner at the point, MacDermid took his space and then unleashed a blast on net. The shot aimed wide but took a fortuitous redirection after hitting off Chicago blueliner Ian Mitchell and beating Stalock.
The Avalanche nearly doubled their lead two just over six minutes into play as Nathan MacKinnon drove to the net and nearly scored on his own rebound. Stalock made the initial stop on MacKinnon's low wrist shot in tight, but as the puck popped out right to net front MacKinnon attempted to roof the rebound. This time, the Chicago netminder made a highlight-worthy sprawled stick save to deny the chance on the goal line and keep it a one-goal game.
The remainder of the period featured uninterrupted end-to-end action as the Avs held just an 11-10 edge in shots. In the final three minutes of the period, Georgiev made a huge stop on the backdoor to preserve Colorado's 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Off a quick odd-man rush Philipp Kurashev snapped a feed to the backdoor for Andreas Athanasiou, but his easy tap-in attempt was kicked away at the goal line as Georgiev slid across to hold off the far post.
Colorado stuck with it in the middle frame - despite a noticeable push from the Blackhawks - and managed a two-goal effort with strikes at even strength from Malgin and a power-play goal from Rantanen to extend the lead 3-0 heading into the final 20 minutes of play.
The Avalanche killed off an early penalty at 1:23 as Bowen Byram was called for closing his hand on the puck. Shortly after, the Avalanche doubled their lead 2-0 on a play off the rush.
Malgin carried the puck into the offensive zone and upon entry, dropped it to his linemate Valeri Nichushkin. Malgin skated into the right faceoff circle where Nichushkin returned the puck to him. From there, Malgin beat Stalock on a sharp angle to net his ninth goal of the season.