Avalanche Goaltender Pavel Francouz stops 1 of 23 shots in Colorado's 2-0 shutout of the Blackhawks at Ball Arena. (Photo: Michael Martin/Getty Images)
The NHL's hottest team remained on fire as the Avalanche shutout the Blackhawks Monday night at Ball Arena, 2-0. It was Colorado's league best 7th straight win, and the 16th consecutive victory at home.
Goalie Pavel Francouz stopped all 23 shots that came his way, and became the first Colorado net minder since 2003 to post back-to-back shutouts, after blanking the Ducks last week in Anaheim. "I think the way the game developed, I could see a big difference when we scored that one goal and we kind of shut them down since that," Francouz said. "It was huge, we controlled the whole third period, we were patient, we just did what we needed and it was a big message for everyone that these are the habits that Mikko (Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen) talked about getting closer to the playoffs. It was a huge test for us and we passed."
All-Star Forward Nazem Kadri scored his 16th goal of the season which broke the scoreless tie in the 2nd. In the 3rd period, Forward Mikko Rantanen found the back of the net for a team high 22nd time. "it was a little bit sloppy in the first, you know we gave up 2-on-1s and stuff like that, but then we had a little chat between the players in the first intermission and after that it was pretty good, he said postgame.”
Colorado is 12-0-1 in the month of January, matching the franchise record for most wins in a month (also 12 wins in March 2021). The Avs have won 7 consecutive contests, the longest active winning streak in the league and Colorado’s longest winning stretch of the season.
During its home winning streak, Colorado has outscored opponents 76-37 and is 18-for-65 (27.7%) on the power play. The Avs also extended their home point streak to 18 games, setting a new franchise record. The club previously had home point streaks of 17 games in 2020-21 (16-0-1) and 2002-03 (14-0-2-1).
Center Nathan MacKinnon tallied an assist to tie Anton Stastny (384) for 6th place on the franchise’s all-time assist list. His 34 helpers this season are tied for 6th in the NHL, and he ranks third in points-per-game (1.43)
The Avalanche look to extend their win streak to 8, and home win streak to 17 on Wednesday night when the Bruins pay their only visit to the Mile High City.