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The Chicago Blackhawks enter Friday night’s game against the visiting Montreal Canadiens tied with San Jose for the fewest points in the NHL (21) and with the second-worst goal differential (minus-38) behind only the Sharks.

Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson, however, thinks his young team may have taken a big step forward in its rebuilding project following a 3-2 victory over the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.

Tyler Johnson’s power-play goal at 8:19 of the third period snapped a tie for the Blackhawks, who halted a four-game losing streak.

Rookie Connor Bedard notched two assists in the win and now has 12 goals and 28 points this season. Ryan Donato collected a goal and an assist for Chicago, which won despite being outshot by a 37-22 margin.

The Blackhawks, however, finished with big edges in hits (23-14), blocked shots (14-6) and takeaways (15-6).

“It is (a big step forward) and I think we have to grab it and use it,” Richardson said. “We just can’t sit on it and think that it just happened. It was a lot of hard work and I think the guys stayed focused. Consistency has been a word we’ve been looking for this year and I think (Tuesday for) 60 minutes it was really good.”

Forward Colin Blackwell, returning after a 10-month layoff due to a sports hernia injury, provided some spark physically finishing with a game-high six hits. The hits included a couple of crunchers on defenseman Josh Manson and star Nathan MacKinnon.

“I think he (Blackwell) was chirping off the bench, he had them ruffled up all throughout the game, and that’s him,” Richardson said. “He’s a little spitfire. He was really good, and happy for him. It’s a long road back but he put a lot of work in and he was ready.”

Now the Blackhawks will try to win back-to-back games for just the second time this season when they host the Canadiens.

Montreal, which is riding a four-game point streak (2-0-2), will be playing the second game of a back-to-back that started with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Canadiens fell behind early, 2-0, but rallied to force overtime on a deflection goal by Juraj Slafkovsky with 3:03 left in the third period. Kirill Kaprizov scored 4:55 into overtime.

“We knew it was going to be a physical, emotional game,” forward Brendan Gallagher said. “Obviously they jumped on us pretty early and we kept battling back, battling back. We were slowly feeling like we were taking over the game. I thought it would have been nice to come out of here with two points. (But) we got a point in a building we haven’t had a lot of success in. If we can find a way to win the game (at Chicago), we’re in a pretty good spot going into the (Christmas) break.”

This is the second meeting between the two teams. The Canadiens recorded a 3-2 win on Oct. 14 in Montreal after Sean Monahan scored with his team shorthanded to cap a three-goal second period.

–Field Level Media