"Obviously, one of those runs you want to keep going," Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane said. "We had a disappointing second half of the season, to say the least. It seemed like a lot of the games throughout the year kind of went the way they did tonight, where we score first and give up one, lose the momentum and just can't regain it. Disappointing season."
WATCH: [All Avalanche vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist, and Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves for the Avalanche, who are 5-1-0 in their past six games. Colorado (40-25-8) leads the Anaheim Ducks by two points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the West, and are two points behind the Minnesota Wild for third in the Central Division.
"It was a big two points," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I love the fact that we found a way to get it done. We had a big second period. ... [Varlamov] had a big night. I don't like to see [him being relied upon so much], but he's part of our team and we'll take it. We'll take that performance from him every night if we can."
Brent Seabrook scored, and Anton Forsberg made 35 saves for the Blackhawks (30-35-9), who have lost four in a row and are 3-8-1 in their past 12 games.
Rantanen made it 2-1 at 5:01 of the second period, scoring from low in the right face-off circle off a cross-ice pass from Nathan MacKinnon. He has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) during a seven-game point streak.
"Real good play," Bednar said. "[MacKinnon]'s dangerous when he gets the puck over there with some time. I thought Mikko was equally impressive, the first pass then getting into an area where he could get the puck back instead of just quitting on the play was real important."
