Brindley's Third-Period Goal Leads Avalanche Past Blackhawks 3-1

Saturday Success

Gavin Brindley's third-period tally was the game-winner as the Avalanche defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 at Ball Arena on Saturday. Cale Makar scored twice and Martin Necas posted two assists while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 14 of the 15 shots he faced.

"It's a big one," Brindley said. "Obviously, Caler (Cale Makar) [scored] a big goal at the end of the second [period] just to get us going. I thought we did a great job tonight. I thought we controlled the pace of the game. I thought we controlled the pace of the game."

With the win, the Avalanche improved to 39-10-9.

"I liked our game tonight, again," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "The work ethic. The competitiveness. I think out of the first three games (back from the break), that's the tightest we've been defensively. Suppressing shots. I thought our intentions were good. And our commitment to defend and our conscious to defend was good tonight."

How It Happened

Chicago's Connor Bedard opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 6:30 of the first period via a right-circle shot.

Makar tied the game at 19:51 of the second period with his 16th goal of the season via a right-circle shot set up by Nathan MacKinnon's cross-ice feed.

The Avs took a 2-1 lead at 7:31 of the third period when Brindley scored his sixth goal of the season via a shot from the left doorstep, capitalizing on a rebound created by Sam Malinski's shot from the point.

"Bardy (Zakhar Bardakov) made a couple of really nice plays in the [offensive] zone," Brindley said when describing his goal. "[He] got it out to Toewser (Devon Toews). Toewser [and] Sammy (Malinski) made a nice play up top. Sammy kind of walked and I just kind of funneled to the net and the puck was just sitting there. [I was] fortunate enough to put it home. Great shot by Sammy, and it was a good little sequence there."

Makar gave the Avs a 3-1 lead at 18:33 of the third period with his second goal of the game and 17th of the season via an empty-net tally.

Next Up

The Avalanche begins a three-game road trip against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday at 8:30 p.m. MT on KTVD-20, Altitude2, Altitude+ and Altitude Sports Radio 950 AM.