Stubborn Love: Avalanche 3, Blackhawks 0

The Chicago Blackhawks had their five-game point streak snapped on Monday night, falling 3-0 to the Colorado Avalanche. It was the first time this season the Blackhawks have been shutout.

The Avalanche thought they’d scored the opening goal just under nine minutes into the first period, but the Blackhawks successfully challenged for offsides and the goal was overturned.

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— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 9:28 PM

Artturi Lehkonen got the Avalanche on the board for real 31 seconds into the third period. Nathan MacKinnon got the puck to Devon Toews, whose long shot was tipped by Lehkonen, putting the Avs up 1-0.

Avalanche Goal! Artturi Lehkonen(27) gets one with the tip-in! Assists: Devon Toews(25), Nathan MacKinnon(74) Goalie: Spencer Knight Colorado Avalanche: 1 Chicago Blackhawks: 0 #COL VS #CHI #GoAvsGo#Blackhawks

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— NHLData (@nhldata.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 11:17 PM

Martin Necas made it 2-0 about three minutes later. MacKinnon blocked Jason Dickinson’s clearing attempt along the wall then skated in on net before passing back to an open Necas in the slot, who ripped it off the crossbar and in.

Avalanche Goal! Martin Necas(22) snaps it in! Assist: Nathan MacKinnon(75) Goalie: Spencer Knight Colorado Avalanche: 2 Chicago Blackhawks: 0 #COL VS #CHI #GoAvsGo#Blackhawks

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— NHLData (@nhldata.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 11:21 PM

The Avalanche sealed game with an empty net goal from Joel Kiviranta with 00:54, and the Blackhawks fell 3-0.

Colorado goal! Scored by Joel Kiviranta with 00:54 remaining in the 3rd period. Colorado: 3 Chicago: 0 #CHIvsCOL #GoAvsGo #Blackhawks

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— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 11:47 PM

Notes

Twitter’s embed feature was broken at the time of writing this recap and Bluesky does not have the same vids on its platform, so I had to provide regular links below. Sorry!

The Blackhawks have been a poor starting team all season, and while the Avanache did dominate shot possession — owned 76.19 of the shot attempts and 70 percent of shots on goal at 5-on-5 in the first — it didn’t feel as lopsided for some reason. Don’t get me wrong, the Avs were exceedingly the better team in that period, but usually the Blackhawks are a disorganized mess to start while tonight they were fairly cohesive in the first — just outplayed. To come out tied 0-0 was really good to see, and not just because Spencer Knight was solid in net.

The second period is where it got interesting because the Blackhawks closed the gap a lot. The Avs initially seemed like they were just going to continue to roll but, within the first few minutes, the Blackhawks pushed back hard and were the more dangerous team for a bit. Unfortunately, a really terrible 5-on-3 power play basically killed the Blackhawks’ momentum and, while the end of the period wasn’t lopsided by any means, the Blackhawks just weren’t able to get back to that efficiency level again. Most of the shot metrics were pretty level mostly, but the Blackhawks did have the edge in quality at 5-on-5: shot attempts (15-12) and quality (54.9 percent expected goals) favored the Avalanche, but shots on goal were even (5-5), which is solid.

The third period is where the quality of the Avalanche finally broke the ice: the two first goals were just a really good team connecting and skill coming out on top. A beautiful deflection play after good cycling then a laser of a shot after the Blackhawks failed to clear the zone. After the second goal, the Blackhawks did respond well, but it was a bit of score effects at that point: Blackhawks ended up with the better shot attempts (19-14), shots on goal (9-6), and 62.29 percent of the expected goals.

Nick Foligno on the Blackhawks playing better lately: https://x.com/BenPopeCST/status/1899313849142071402

“There’s a cohesiveness with the group. We’ve gotten rid of some distractions, so to speak, and now there’s a group that’s trying to get better… Sometimes when you make hard decisions, they end up benefiting the group, and you’re seeing that… Guys are playing together, they’re playing for one another, they’re playing to grow something here and not worried about what’s gone on or what guys are feeling. Everyone here is pulling on the same rope. We know we’ve got to pull ourselves out of this, and it’s a credit to all the guys that — after a lot of distractions and the deadline — we’re seeing a group that has come together here. It’s encouraging.”

Even with the quality of shots in the third, the Avalanche were still the better team, but it seemed closer than the score indicated. Wedgewood had to make quite a few ridiculous saves to keep the Blackhawks off the board. One of the best was the pinwheel-kick save on Connor Bedard in the first. He later robbed Nick Foligno (wish there had been some elevation there), robbed Tyler Bertuzzi on the doorstep at one point, stopped a slick breakaway move by Nazar, and more. Wedgewood has been an above average goalie since joining the Avs, but he was extra good tonight (though very scrambly).

SCOTT WEDGEWOOD 🤯 TAKE A BOW!

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— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM

OH MY GOODNESS 😱 SCOTT WEDGEWOOD WITH ANOTHER UNREAL SAVE!

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— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 10:58 PM

https://twitter.com/CRoumeliotis/status/1899299935431835989

https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1899300870887440570

Luck wasn’t on the Blackhawks side beyond just shots: the players got beat up on some seemingly accidental plays. Well, the cross check to Bedard in the first was obviously intentional, but he was then hit in the neck with the puck while on the ice, which is just a freak accident.

https://twitter.com/CHSN_Blackhawks/status/1899270813557076091

Alec Martinez was also hit with a puck but did not fare as well: he left the game midway through the first period and did not return. Coach Anders Sorensen said after the game that he was considered day-to-day.

https://twitter.com/CRoumeliotis/status/1899275207828758985

And Spencer Knight was cross-checked in the neck after Colorado’s Miles Wood couldn’t control his speed and barreled into the Blackhawks netminder. Again, not intentional but it was a penalty.

https://twitter.com/CRoumeliotis/status/1899285423068696591

Speaking of Knight, he was kind of overshadowed by Wedgewood in this game, but Knight had another very solid outing. The end result numbers aren’t as flashy — just a .900 save percentage — but we all know that what the Avs lacked in quantity they make up for in quality. He robbed MacKinnon twice in the opening period with excellent positioning and quick reflexes.

Dickinson came back from injury for this game and, while he was fine, he did have some moments where it showed he wasn’t quite up to game speed. His line with Bedard and Colton Dach was still fairly successful: Blackhawks broke even in shot attempts (8-8), just slightly under in terms of shots on goal (4-3 Avs), but had some of the best chances of the night (57.04 percent of expected goals). Bedard led the team in attempts (6 at 5-on-5, 8 overall), shots on goal (5 at 5-on-5, 6 overall), and scoring chances (3 at 5-on-5, 4 overall). Neither Dickinson nor Dach had a shot on goal, but they had two and one attempts, respectively.

The only line with a better expected goals share on the Blackhawks than Bedard’s line was Lukas Reichel, Joe Veleno, and Tyler Bertuzzi with 63.49 percent, but even less of those made it through on net (just 2).

Of course, the biggest topic for this game was Artyom Levshunov making his NHL debut, and he was pretty good ultimately. Basically as expected: the physical tools and skills are there, and while he’s pretty unpolished still, it’s super easy to see how he could be shined up to be a top-pairing defender. I saw some remarks on Twitter about how he made no mistakes, but that’s just not true. He had some coverage miscues (he ran into his own teammate at one point, even), he overthought some plays (took too long to shoot or pass occasionally), then didn’t seem to fully think on other plays (tried to carry into several Avs players), and some pinches were slightly off (he did get back well though). However, none of those issues weren’t egregious — we’ve seen much worse from the veteran defenders — and the only one that was somewhat costly was on the empty-netter (bad dump, some coverage issues) but it’s hard to be upset over an ENG. And those types of mistakes were, as I said above, expected of a 19-year old defensemen in his first NHL game. It was a good and encouraging first game, however you slice it.

The Blackhawks threw Artyom Levshunov in the fire tonight, and he rewarded their faith in him, even in a 3-0 loss. "He defended well. He was assertive. [It was a] good first step." Juicy postgame notebook from Denver: chicago.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2…

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— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:51 AM

Some of my favorite moments for him were when he jumped into an offensive play (in the OZ), his pass was strong when it worked (stretch pass was more accurate in the second and third, for example), he does love to shoot (timing can be iffy but the spirit is there), his skating is strong enough to compensate when he does make an error (his skating is NHL quality already), and more. Levshunov also was the only player on that 5-on-3 that seemed to get anything going: that fake shot before passing move was outstanding. Levshunov was conservative to start, understandably, but more assertive as the game progressed. You have to be happy with that shift throughout the game.

Levshunov on the 5-on-3, which seemed to loosen him up: "I got more confidence after that, for sure. I had chances to score my first game. Unfortunately, I didn’t. But world goes on."

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:07 AM

https://twitter.com/CRoumeliotis/status/1899286600661553621

If you were just talking about being able to skate in the NHL right now, Levshunov could — but he really shouldn’t for too much longer. He’s improved a lot this season in Rockford, but two things he still is working on are decision making and timing, both of which contributed to the errors he made tonight too. It should also be noted that he was in mostly sheltered deployment, as he started 83.33 percent of the time in the offensive zone (most on the team) with Bedard’s line, and while he did see some of MacKinnon as a result, it was not a set matchup (just 5:39 of his 19:06 of 5-on-5 time). Easing Levshunov in was a great strategy, which was especially tough to do when down to just five defenders.

Once Levshunov has mastered the speed of the game in the AHL, he’ll be all the better suited to take the big step to the NHL. As it stands, this game was a solid first impression, even if there is work to be done. Again, there was a lot to be excited about, mistakes and all (because they seemed correctable with proper development).

Artyom Levshunov on playing against Nathan MacKinnon: "He’s such a good player. He’s fast, yeah. It was cool to play against him." Was it a confidence booster? "Yeah, it felt good. He’s still human, right? It was good."

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:09 AM

We’ll likely end up doing a more extensive breakdown of Levshunov’s first game(s) at some point on SCH, but in the mean time, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic put some clips together here:

Artyom Levshunov's NHL debut was outstanding. I watched every stride of his every shift tonight, and came away very impressed. Here are my takeaways, with some helpful videos along the way: www.nytimes.com/athletic/619…

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— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:55 AM

And if you’d like an unbiased, outside of the Blackhawks fandom, perspective of his development in the AHL this season, you can check out this article from David St. Louis of Elite Prospects.

This first AHL season has been an adjustment period for Artyom Levshunov. He's picking up points more regularly now and featuring more often on the highlight reel, but his development will require a lot of patience. www.eliteprospects.com/news/artyom-…

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— David St-Louis (@davidst-louis.bsky.social) February 23, 2025 at 9:44 AM