The Avalanche were decent Saturday night, but that isn't good enough to beat a team like Chicago, which left the Pepsi Center with a 5-2 win despite an early wakeup call and same-day flight to Denver.
Patrick Kane had two goals and an assist for the Central Division-leading Blackhawks (24-10-2), who rallied from 1-0 and 2-1 first-period deficits.
The Avalanche (13-14-8) had their modest winning streak snapped at three games. They were 4-0-2 in the previous six games.
"I cannot say we didn't play well tonight," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "Their power play and our power play were the difference. Obviously we need to be better in that area. We had our chances to get back in the game, we just didn't manage the puck well and couldn't get the quality shots on net."
The Avalanche went 0-for-3 on power plays, which included a two-man advantage in the third period after the Blackhawks took a 4-2 lead on their second power-play goal of the game. It was scored by Patrick Sharp from a sharp angle against rookie goalie Calvin Pickard after the Avalanche didn't control the puck in the corner.
The Blackhawks took their first lead of the game at 13:14 of the second period when defenseman Brent Seabrook scored on a power play from the right circle for a 3-2 advantage. Nathan MacKinnon was in the penalty box for delay of game after his attempted clear went over the glass.
Pickard, who stopped 28 of 32 shots (Kane scored an empty-net goal with 5.4 seconds to play) was upset with himself for giving up two power-play goals on three shots.
"The thing that doesn't sit well with me is their two power-play goals," he said. "Three shots ... I need to be better on the penalty kill. I thought I did a pretty good job for the most part. They're stacked, very skilled. Every team's got a lot of skill, but they take it to the next level."
The Avalanche got first-period goals from MacKinnon, who had gone 16 games without a goal, and Erik Johnson, who has scored in four consecutive games and has matched his career high for goals in a season with 10.
MacKinnon's goal was his sixth of the season, first since Nov. 13 against the New York Rangers and first at home since Nov. 2 against Anaheim. Johnson, who has six goals in the past six games, scored 10 goals in 2009-10 with St. Louis.
"I'd trade it for a win any day of the week," Johnson said. "It's just a number, but it's good to contribute and hopefully I can continue to do that in winning ways."
Johnson is tied for the NHL goals lead among defensemen with Calgary's Mark Giordano and Dennis Wideman, and San Jose's Brent Burns.
The Avalanche killed two penalties in the first period and came close to scoring on each. Alex Tanguay had a semi-breakaway with Ryan O'Reilly in the box for tripping, but he skated too deep on the left and hit the outside of the post at 3:53. Max Talbot shot the puck off the far post from the left wing at 11:51 with Zach Redmond off for interference.
"We had great chances in the first," Roy said. "I thought we played really well, we were skating well, we had great chances. It would have been great to come back with the lead after one period. It was a hard-fought game."
Aside from his goal, Seabrook made a couple of terrific defensive plays to snuff out Avalanche scoring chances, his best coming with 3:10 left in the second period when he knocked the puck away from Matt Duchene, who was skating in alone on goalie Corey Crawford.
Duchene, who had one shot on goal, has no goals and one assist in the past six games. Tyson Barrie had five of the Avalanche's 25 shots and has gone 10 games without a goal.