Good & Bad: Juuso Parssinen Scores First Goal in Loss to Blackhawks

The last place Chicago Blackhawks put up a fight to better the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Wednesday night. The Avs outshot the Hawks 36-20 but couldn’t capitalize on numerous scoring chances.

The Avs came out with their foot on the gas but didn’t keep it on the pedal through the full 60. Juuso Parssinen scored the first goal of the game, and his first in burgundy and blue, at 6:14 in the opening period.

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Chicago revved up its game and got life with a goal from Ilya Mikheyev at three minutes left in the first. They continued to improve throughout the rest of the matchup.

Frank Nazar scored midway through the second and Connor Bedard sealed the game with a goal at 11:54 in the third period. Mrazek made 36 saves to lead the Blackhawks to their second victory over the Avalanche.

Trent Miner made his debut start and stopped 17 of 20 shots. He played a solid game and did not give up easy goals. The Avs defensive play broke down throughout the game with a high number of turnovers that led to scoring chances for the Blackhawks.

Good: Juuso Parssinen Scores a Sexy First Goal

The Avs’ latest addition, Juuso Parssinen, scored his first goal in his fifth game with the Avalanche. He got an assist in the 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night for his first point.

The 23-year-old Finn grabbed the puck on a rebound in the D-zone and took it the length of the ice to beat Mrazek top shelf with a backhand shot. It was an unassisted goal.

Bad: Turnovers, Bad Passes

The Avalanche played a lot of chase with missed or broken-up passes throughout the game. Although the teams were even in giveaways at 13, Chicago had one more takeaway than Colorado.

“I didn’t like some of the things we did on both those goals against — both turnovers and then missing checks on the way in.

“We didn’t do a great job finishing on our chances … They’re going to check some pucks back, but we got to do a job better than that in defending it,” head coach Jared Bednar said.

Bad: Overthinking Shots

Only once or twice did the Avs pepper Mrazek with shots in the loss. They passed too much and several got broken up which took away their scoring chances.

Cale Makar said the team’s execution wasn’t there and “not as sharp as we should have been.”