Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 Colorado Avalanche
The Chicago Blackhawks notched their 14th success of the year with a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Illinois. It was a come-from-behind win for the hosts, who fell behind 6:14 into the first period through Juuso Parssinen.
Ilya Mikheyev responded for Chicago with 3:12 left in the opening frame to tie things up. Despite being outshot 18-12 in the period, the Avalanche went into the intermission on level pegging.
It was very much the same thing in the second period, with the Avalanche mustering 14 shots to the Blackhawks' 12. But, Frank Nazar got the only goal of the period midway through to put Chicago in front.
Conor Bedard added a third with 8:06 left in the game to give the home team the win. In the end, Colorado had 46 attempts to Chicago's 31, but still came out on the losing side.
Despite the victory being their second in their last three games, the Hawks remain bottom of the Western Conference, with the worst record in the league. The Avalanche remain seventh, just six points above the Calgary Flames, who had their game postponed.
Washington Capitals 2-1 Vancouver Canucks (OT)
The Washington Capitals defeated the Vancouver Canucks 2-1, needing overtime to get the desired result.
It took just four minutes into the first period for a fight to break out, resulting in several players being sent to the penalty box. With less than a minute to go, however, Pierre-Luc Dubois broke the deadlock to put the Caps in front going into intermission.
As was the case with the opening frame, Vancouver got their goal at the end of the second period, as Conor Garland made the most of a power play to tie things up. Twenty-nine of the Canucks' 49 shots in the game came in this period as they desperately looked for their equalizer, which ultimately came.
With a rather quiet third period solving nothing, overtime was needed to determine a victor. The teams traded their opportunities before Dubois scored the game-winner with 41 seconds left in the five-minute extra period. That would be the difference as Washington came out as 2-1 winners.
The Caps remain on top of the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs. For Vancouver, who suffered a third straight loss, they continue to hold onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.