The Blackhawks head back to Chicago hoping to avoid being swept in a home-and-home by the Avalanche on Sunday.
Colorado moved into the second wild card in the Western Conference with a 4-2 win against Chicago on Saturday in Denver. Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves for Colorado, who won four straight games.
Collin Wilson scored a goal and an assist and Alex Kerfoot had two assists. J.T. Compher also scored for his fourth goal this season against his hometown team.
The Blackhawks have now dropped three straight games and are now six points back of Colorado. Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton could turn to Corey Crawford for back-to-back starts after the netminder made 21 saves Saturday.
Defenseman Erik Gustafsson is riding a three-game goal streak and has 16 goals this season. The Blackhawks went a woeful 0-for-3 on the power play and are now 1-for-24 in their past 10 games. Patrick Kane hasn’t scored a goal in the last five games, and Dylan Sikura is still searching for his first career NHL goal.
Chicago won the first two games of the season series in December in Denver: 2-1 and 3-2 in overtime. Colorado has won two straight against the Blackhawks, including a 5-3 victory Feb. 22 in Chicago.
Lineups
Blackhawks
Sikura — Toews — Kane
DeBrincat — Strome — Perlini
Saad — Anisimov — Kahun
Kunitz — Kampf — Kruger
Keith — Gustafsson
Dahlstrom — Murphy
Forsling — Seabrook
Crawford
Ward
Avalanche
Brassard — MacKinnon — Compher
Wilson — Soderberg — Rantanen
Kerfoot — Jost — Calvert
Andrighetto — Borque — Graves
Girard — Johnson
Cole — Barrie
Zadorov — Nemeth
Varlamov
Grubauer
How to watch
When: 7 p.m., Central
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports Network