CHICAGO _ It would appear the Avalanche held off from having Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.
They waited until Friday and got fat on the Blackhawks.
The Avs got on the board in the opening minute and scored five goals on their first 13 shots to beat the Hawks 5-2 before a season-high crowd of 21,822 at the United Center.
After taking three of four points from the Stars earlier in the week, the Hawks were eager to keep piling up points against Central Division foes. But they came out flat from the start to put a huge damper on the eagerly awaited home-and-home series with the Avalanche, which concludes with an 8 p.m. Central time start Saturday in Denver.
To make matters worse, Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith injured his groin midway through the second period and did not return.
Patrick Kane did score a second-period goal to extend his point streak to 14 games, the longest in the NHL this season and tied for the third-longest of his career.
However, Kane contributed to the slow start. He tried to make an exit pass from behind the goal line but it went right to J.T. Compher, who took a few strides and sent a wrist shot toward the net.
Nathan MacKinnon tipped it in past Corey Crawford to make it 1-0. Ryan Graves banged home a rebound less than three minutes later, and the Avs were in control.
Andrew Shaw fought Graves a couple of minutes later to try to spark the Hawks, which it did momentarily. They finally started to spend some time in the Avs zone, and when Ryan Carpenter forced a turnover and fed Zack Smith for his first goal of the season, the lead was cut in half.
But Erik Gustafsson took the first of his two first-period minor penalties shortly after, and Calder Trophy front-runner Cale Makar buried a wrist shot over Crawford's left shoulder for his eighth goal.
Valeri Nichushkin scored on a breakaway and Compher added a goal in the second period. Keith's final shift came while racing to try to get back on the Nichushkin goal.
Once the Avs build their lead, they stopped trying to force the play, and as a result the Hawks ended up with a 36-23 shot advantage despite the relative blowout. It was just the fifth time this season _ but the second game in a row _ that the Hawks outshot an opponent.
