• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Avs use 3rd-period burst to down Blackhawks

Mar 5, 2014 - 5:24 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Tyson Barrie, Ryan O'Reilly and Paul Stastny scored third-period goals to support a 36-save effort from Semyon Varlamov that carried the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.

Maxime Talbot also tallied and Erik Johnson notched three assists in Colorado's third straight win. Barrie and O'Reilly also recorded assists during the Avalanche's final-period outburst.

Varlamov outplayed counterpart Corey Crawford, who stopped just 17-of-20 shots for the Blackhawks.

Ben Smith and Jonathan Toews each recorded goals in the loss, Chicago's third in four games.

"For the most part we did the right things tonight," Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said. "We should have taken advantage of it."

The teams were knotted at 2-2 when an interference penalty to Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya with under nine minutes left helped set up the eventual game-winning score. On the ensuing power play, Johnson fed the puck into the left circle for Barrie's one-timer that rocketed past Crawford with 7:10 to play.

"I was yelling for (the puck) and (Johnson) put it right in my wheelhouse and I was just able to kind of get everything on it and lucky to beat Crawford there," Barrie said of his game-winning goal.

Varlamov made the lead hold up with several key saves down the stretch before Stastny sealed the win by tapping in an empty-netter with 33 seconds on the clock.

After mustering only three shots during a scoreless opening period, the Avalanche beat Crawford on their second chance of the second to break the stalemate. Johnson wound up and sent a long drive that was successfully redirected by Talbot just 2:49 into the middle session

Chicago drew even prior to the second intermission on Smith's eighth of the season, a wrister past a screened Varlamov that came with 3:08 remaining in the frame.

O'Reilly sent Colorado back in front with only 1:23 elapsed in the third, taking in a pass from Matt Duchene in the neutral zone and racing hard down the right wing before firing the puck under Crawford's pads just 1:23 into the middle session.

The Blackhawks got back the equalizer just under six minutes later while on a power play, with Toews depositing Patrick Sharp's well-placed feed across the crease into an open right side.

Game Notes

Colorado rookie Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 12 games by setting up Stastny's late goal ... Varlamov improved to 3-0-0 with a 1.47 GAA in three starts against the Blackhawks this season ... The Avs are now 31-1-3 when scoring first this season ... Three of Barrie's nine goals this season have come against Chicago ... Prior to the game, the Blackhawks acquired defenseman David Rundblad and minor league blueliner Mathieu Brisebois from Phoenix in exchange for a 2014 second-round pick.