Petr Mrazek Helped Blackhawks Shut Down Avalance Superstars

The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Wednesday night. It was as impressive as any win they’ve had so far this season. They took care of their business against this Avs team who came in with a record of 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.

The Avs were on that winning streak in large part due to their Hall of Famers. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen form a wonderful duo on the top line with Arturri Lehkonen as a high-end third forward. On defense, Cale Makar is the best in the world.

When Colorado’s top line and Makar are on the ice at the same time, it’s very difficult to contain them. They had some very nice looks in this game and seemed like a safe bet to score at least one goal as a group.

The good news is that Petr Mrazek was there to save the day for the Blackhawks. He made 36 saves on 37 shots and was the main reason that Chicago was able to keep the big guns on Colorado off the scoresheet.

MacKinnon and Rantanen each logged over 27 minutes of ice time in this game. That is a lot of ice for forwards. For reference, not a single Blackhawks forward even had 20 minutes of ice. Cale Makar almost played half the game at 29:34.

MacKinnon had two shots on goal while Lehkonen had five. Makar and Rantanen played the role of playmaker in this one as neither of them registered a shot. With that said, there were some near misses along the way.

Chicago did as good of a job defending them as they could and Mrazek did his job. Playing like he did pre-injury/before the coaching change is important and he took a step forward in this win.

"I was just battling since I returned.”Mrazek said in the locker room after the game. “I knew I can make some saves. I knew there was going to be a game that I can prove I can still play the game."

Nobody questioned if he could still play, it was only a matter of time before he got back to the level he was at dating back to last year. Shutting down some of Colorado’s top guys could be a big confidence boost as well even if Mrazek says it's not.

"I'm not looking at their players if they're frustrated or not, you know, we're focused on our job to do what we have to do." Mrazek said when asked about it being fun to shut down the MacKinnon line. "We shut them down".

This is a great mentality for Mrazek but he can also look back on it and reflect on what it means to play well against a team with that many stars on it who create a ton of chances.

Playing against star players isn't coming to an end for the Blackhawks either. After a quick road game against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Edmonton Oilers will be at the United Center for a tilt on Saturday.

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