"I thought we dominated," said Crawford, who is 11-2-0 in his past 13 starts. "We played really well, we were moving the puck quick and getting a lot of pucks to the net, really testing (Pickard) out. It's nice to hold onto a tight game."
Pickard, who stopped 40 shots, made a glove save against Panarin on a clean breakaway with 9:02 remaining in the third period to keep the Blackhawks lead at 2-1.
Avalanche forwards Chris Wagner and Alex Tanguay were among the Colorado players who pressured Crawford in a scramble in front of the net at 2:28 of the third. Crawford received help in the crease from teammate Andrew Desjardins when the Avalanche jabbed and poked at the puck, producing four shots on goal.
The Blackhawks had a huge edge in shot-differential through the first two periods. They outshot the Avalanche 14-6 in the first period and 15-2 in the second.
"We did a lot of good things," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "'Crow' [Crawford] was good at the end of the game, but I liked our team game. It was a good start. We made a lot of safe plays, were in good position, had the puck a lot. I thought we checked well."
Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said it was especially gratifying to limit the Avalanche to so few quality scoring chances while playing at that altitude in the first game following the All-Star break.
"It's kind of a tough building to play in your first game back," Keith said. "It was a good test. They've got a lot of speed and it was a really good team effort from top to bottom. We had good puck possession down in their zone with some good cycles. Our guys were guarding the puck well, protecting the puck. We didn't give them too many odd-man rushes. We had our chances to pull away, but at the end of the day these are the kinds of games we need to play well in and win."
Offense had been a problem for the Blackhawks in their four previous games when they scored three goals and were shut out twice, including a 5-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 26.