Sluggish start, strong finish for Blackhawks

DENVER - Looking to bounce back after a dreadful 5-1 loss to Winnipeg before the Christmas break, the Blackhawks wanted to start fast Saturday night in Colorado.

Call it a holiday hangover if you want, but that didn't come close to happening as:

• Colorado scored on 2 of its first 4 shots.

• The Hawks nearly gave up 2 short-handed goals on both of their power plays in the first period.

• The Hawks had a grand total of 2 shots on goal in the game's first seven minutes.

But as fans have become accustomed to, coach Joel Quenneville's team can have some rough stretches during games and still come away with a victory, especially against lesser opponents.

And that's exactly what happened against the Avalanche as the Hawks pulled off a 5-2 victory, snapping a six-game streak in which Colorado earned at least 1 point.

Brent Seabrook broke a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal at the 13:14 mark of the second period, with the assist coming from defenseman David Rundblad. It was Seabrook's seventh goal of the season, and he also thwarted a breakaway chance by Matt Duchene four minutes after giving the Hawks the lead.

The Hawks have now managed power-play goals in four of their last six games, after an eight-game stretch in which they were just 1-for-25 with the man advantage.

Patrick Sharp added a power-play goal midway through the third period to make it 4-2.

The Hawks did come out flat, but each time Colorado took the lead, Quenneville's team managed to answer.

The Hawks' first goal came from Brandon Saad off a sweet feed from Jonathan Toews just 31 seconds after the Avs took a 1-0 lead.

Then, seven minutes after the Avs' Erik Johnson made it 2-1, Duncan Keith ripped a pass that Patrick Kane redirected out of midair in front of the net and past goalie Calvin Pickard. Kane added an empty-netter in the closing seconds, giving him 18 on the season and 14 over the last 20 games.

The struggles of Hawks goalie Corey Crawford continued early on as both of Colorado's first-period goals came on shots from 45-plus feet away. Crawford's rough stretch began against Winnipeg when he allowed 3 goals on just 13 shots before getting pulled 15:30 into the first period of that 5-1 loss.

Crawford, though, was stellar the rest of the way Saturday as he stopped the next 21 shots he saw, improving to 13-6-2.

In his last three games before Saturday, Pickard had stopped 109 of the past 112 shots he'd seen.

• Injury update: Brad Richards (upper body) and Michal Rozsival (lower body) did not make the trip to Denver. Coach Joel Quenneville is hoping both can return for Monday's game against Nashville, although Richards' return seems more likely.

• Lend a hand: A relief fund was set up for Clint Reif, the Blackhawks' assistant equipment manager who passed away unexpectedly last week. Donations can be made to the Clint Reif Memorial Trust fund, C/O J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, 120 E. Wesley St., Wheaton, Ill. 60187.

• All-star votes: Patrick Kane (815,990) and Jonathan Toews (803,034) are second and third in all-star tallies among fans as of Tuesday, but they are far behind Buffalo's Zemgus Girgensons, who has a whopping 1,291,186 votes. Eighty percent of those votes have come from his home country of Latvia.

"It's a little bit embarrassing and funny at the same time," said Girgensons, who has only 18 points for 13-20-3 Buffalo. "I know people know me back home, but I didn't think it was going to go that far. That's like crazy far."

Voting is set to end Thursday.

• Follow John's Hawks reports on Twitter @johndietzdh.