TAKEAWAYS: Blackhawks Shutdown by Avalanche

Despite playing strong throughout the first two periods against the Colorado Avalanche, the Blackhawks struggled to find the back of the night in the 5-0 loss at Ball Arena on Monday night.
While the score remained at 2-0 during the first 40 minutes, Caleb Jones thought the team could keep up with their opponents. However, with a fast-paced and skilled team like the Avalanche, they kept all lines going and shut the Blackhawks down.
"It's tough, obviously not the result we wanted," Jones said. "They're a good team, they just keep coming at you. They kind of roll four lines, and they all play fast and emphasis on high end players, and they just got the better of us."

In the second period, Chicago outshot Colorado 12-7 to try and even the score to enter the third period, but even with some opportunities on the power play it wouldn't be enough. By the end of the night, the Blackhawks would be outshot 32-27.
"I thought we're playing pretty well, we're getting our chances and we're getting opportunities," Johnson said. "[Alex Stalock] was doing unbelievable for us keeping us in and then it just kind of sort of unraveled from there."
Head coach Luke Richardson felt that Alex Stalock maintained his composure in net tonight to try and keep the team in the game. One of the bigger plays he made tonight involved a stick save against Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon to keep the game at 1-0.

However, the team simply couldn't capitalize on many chances to help spark that momentum and reward their goaltender.
"I thought he was good," Richardson said. "He kept us in the first period and made a big save on MacKinnon to keep it at 1-0. I think he was active playing the puck, which is very helpful for us against that team. So, unfortunately, again, that's another night we couldn't give him any goal support early because he's always creative in there and keeps us in the game."
In the second period, the Blackhawks penalty kill unit allowed a goal for the first time since March 10 against the Florida Panthers. Following the goal, Jones felt it began to frustrate the team and made it harder to try and create a comeback effort like that have in previous games.
"The third [goal on the] power play was a little deflating, but that happens," Jones said. "We've come from behind a lot this year. So, we just want to try to push hard for the first [half of] the third and see what happened and we couldn't get anything."