Avalanche 3, Blackhawks 2: Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly each had a goal and an assist and host Colorado leapfrogged Chicago into second place in the Central Division.

Brad Malone scored his first goal of the season and Duchene extended his point streak to a career-high nine games as the Avalanche won for the sixth time in seven games - and made it four wins in five meetings against the Blackhawks this season. Semyon Varlamov turned aside 37 shots and added an assist to improve to 4-0-0 versus Chicago this season.

Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad had the goals for the Blackhawks, who dropped one point behind Colorado in the Central and remained five behind division-leading St. Louis. Antti Raanta, making his first start since Jan. 28, had 26 saves in the loss.

Varlamov collected an assist on the only goal of the first period when Malone, called up from the minors on Tuesday, broke down the left side and beat Raanta with a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the circle at 18:24. Colorado doubled the lead 19 seconds into the second when a bouncing puck skidded to Duchene and he buried it short side from the right circle.

Kane got Chicago on the scoreboard eight minutes later with a brilliant individual effort, taking a feed at his own blue line and rushing up the right side before breaking around defenseman Jan Hejda and going top-shelf over Varlamov on a backhander for his 29th goal. O'Reilly restored the two-goal margin on a 5-on-3, putting home a rebound of Duchene's shot with 9:07 left to play in the contest, allowing the Avalanche to withstand Saad's tally with 2:17 left.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Varlamov picked up his third assist on Malone's tally, matching the most in a season by a Colorado netminder since Craig Anderson had three in 2009-10. ... Kane scored for the second time in as many games to tie LW Patrick Sharp for the team lead, but captain Jonathan Toews had his four-game goal-scoring streak halted. ... Duchene has five goals and nine assists during his nine-game point streak.