First, happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Enjoy your turkey and all the trimmings, or whatever your choice happens to be on a holiday that hopefully includes family, friends and -- yes -- even some football.

Hard to be too critical of the Avalanche after their 3-2 loss to Chicago on Wednesday night in a fast-paced game before a sellout crowd of 18,007 that included plenty of red-clad Blackhawks fans.

Rookie goalie Calvin Pickard was excellent again while making a career-high 42 saves, nine of them against Hawks forward Marian Hossa, who had a number of great scoring chances. You have to wonder what the Avalanche plans to do with Reto Berra once Semyon Varlamov returns from his groin injury, which could be soon.

Playing against a terrific Blackhawks team, the Avalanche had to make do without a number of key players: Varlamov, defenseman Erik Johnson (head) and forwards Jamie McGinn (back) and John Mitchell (leg). Five other players are injured and Alex Tanguay played with a full face shield to protect the facial fracture he sustained a week ago against Washington.

The Blackhawks got power-play goals from Jonathan Toews and Andrew Shaw 2:31 apart in the second period and a goal by Bryan Bickell after an outstanding play by Patrick Kane (three assists) with 5:17 left in regulation to break a 2-2 tie.

The Avalanche got goals from Max Talbot for a 1-0 lead at 7:35 of the second period and Ryan O'Reilly, who tied the game 2-2 at 3:36 of the third period with his first goal in 11 games.

The Gabriel Landeskog-Nathan MacKinnon-Jarome Iginla line combined for eight shots but was shut out after it accounted for three goals and nine assists in the previous two games.

The Hawks outshot the Avalanche 45-29. Including missed and blocked shots, the count was 76-48. They also dominated faceoffs 40-25. Twelve of Chicago's shots came on six power plays. The Avalanche had no shots on two power plays and are in a 1-for-31 slump with the man advantage in the past 11 games.

Coach Patrick Roy and Tanguay weren't too happy with the discrepancy in power plays.

"We played well, I liked our compete level for playing back-to-back games," Roy said, referring to Tuesday's 4-3 overtime win in Arizona. "They were waiting for us (in Denver) and we have (nine) injured players. Our players certainly deserve a lot of credit. I thought 5-on-5 we were the better team.

"It's kind of funny how this game goes sometimes. In the last few games we'd have maybe one or no power plays and tonight we gave them five in 33 minutes, and that's all they needed to score those two goals. I just thought they got away with things we could not get away with."

Said Tanguay: "It would have been nice to get a couple more power plays. I thought the game was pretty even 5-on-5. They certainly had more (power-play) chances than we did. Usually it's pretty tight on the penalties. I thought there were a couple that could have gone our way. We played solid and it's frustrating not to come out with anything."

Tanguay said he "felt OK" physically but was upset with himself for not scoring on a shorthanded breakaway against goalie Corey Crawford with 4:30 left in the first period.

"I should have scored on that breakaway," he said. "His pads were wide open and (the puck) hit his stick. You have to bury those chances."

*****

Pickard made 42 saves without giving up a goal in 95:33 of playing time covering two consecutive appearances in relief of Berra to backstop the Avalanche to come-from-behind wins against Carolina and Arizona. When Toews scored at 11:50 of the second period, it ended Pickard's shutout streak at 147:24; the previous goal against him came from Montreal's P.K. Subban with 2:01 left in the second period Oct. 18.

His 42 saves Wednesday were the most by an Avalanche rookie since Marc Denis stopped 46 shots in a 7-1 win against Calgary on Nov. 27, 1999.

"It was exciting, a really good game for the fans to see," Pickard said. "It was back and forth. We played well, they played well. You have to be in position for as many shots as you can. I thought I did that for the most part, but we would have liked a win for sure.

"All the way through the lineup we had a great effort. We might have been undermanned, but we can't use that as an excuse. The guys did a great job tonight. It was just tough at the end when they squeaked one in there."



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