Crawford helps Blackhawks to 2-1 win over Avalanche

Chicago got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period after goals by Richard Panik (3rd) at 2:07 and Artemi Panarin (18th) at 7:16. Panik gave Chicago a 1-0 lead 2:57 into the game when he batted in a pass from center Andrew Shaw for his third goal of the season. Chicago will be without captain Jonathan Toews, who is suspended for one contest because he missed the All-Star Game (illness).

With Varlamov remaining away from the Pepsi Center and Calvin Pickard getting his third consecutive start in the net, the Avalanche was outshot 42-24 and fell to the defending Stanley Cup champions. He wrapped up a civil lawsuit filed against him by a former girlfriend, with jury ruling in his favor late Tuesday and awarding Varlamov approximately $126,000 in damages. Calvin Pickard would be just as good the remaining 40 minutes, stopping all of Chicago’s 28 shots on goal.

The Avalanche got one goal back on the Hawks when Gabriel Landeskog fired a shot past Crawford in the slot at 9 minutes, 59 seconds of the first but that was the lone misstep.

“They looked like an urgent team tonight”. The only difference between Panarin and Teravainen is that Panarin had a few seasons of seasoning in the KHL, Teravainen still has plenty of room to grow into the superstar we all expect him to be and boy did he showcase that more of that growth tonight.

“He did a lot of good things, ” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. This was Panik’s third goal since joining the Blackhawks on January 3 from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a swap of minor league forwards. “Scoring is nice, but I thought he had some jump and I liked his thought process in the game”.

Varlamov was charged in 2013 with a count of third-degree assault after his ex-girlfriend Yevgeniya Vavrinyuk alleged he knocked her to the ground, stomped on her chest and dragged her by the hair during an argument last month.

For part of the day, it seemed that the court proceedings, regardless of verdict, might end in time for Varlamov to be on the bench as the backup to Pickard against the Blackhawks. “He’s relieved and excited to play hockey again”. They took the season series from the Avalanche by winning three of four, including one in overtime….

ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (33-16-4): Kane is on track to become the first American-born player to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top point-getter. Blake Comeau and Erik Johnson would pick up assists on the play, and Landeskog would net his fourth goal in as many games. The drop off from Chicago to just the 4th place team in Colorado is 15 points, demonstrating the gap of the class of the division from the pack.

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