Jonathan Toews scored the game-winning goal nine seconds into overtime, and the Chicago Blackhawks outlasted the Colorado Avalanche for a 2-1 win on Tuesday night at the United Center.

Toews pumped his fist and high-fived teammates after his 18th goal of the season and his second in the past two games. He capitalized on a pass from right winger Patrick Kane, who slipped a feed from the right circle to Toews for the one-timer shot.

The sequence marked Toews' second game-winning goal of the season.

Chicago climbed back to within a game of .500 on the season. Colorado picked up one point in its postseason bid and earned at least one point for the seventh time in the past eight contests.

Blackhawks goaltender Jean-Francois Berube improved to 2-1-0 on the season. Berube stopped 33 of 34 shots in his third start of the season behind Anton Forsberg, who was pulled from the net Sunday against Anaheim.

Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov gave up two goals on 27 shots in the loss. Varlamov dropped to 18-14-4 on the season.

Chicago opened the scoring only 5:08 after the opening faceoff. Toews banked a pass off the sideboards for Erik Gustafsson, who gathered the puck and flipped a shot off Avalanche defenseman Patrik Nemeth and into the net. That marked Gustafsson's second goal in 61 career games.

Colorado evened the score with 3:42 remaining in the second period. Defenseman Tyson Barrie slid a pass to Nathan MacKinnon, who ripped a wrist shot from the top of the left circle for his team-leading 32nd goal of the season. The 22-year-old MacKinnon has 78 points in 58 games to lead Colorado on the season.

Before the game, the Blackhawks announced a two-year contract extension with Gustafsson. The Swedish native reportedly will receive $1.2 million in each of the next two seasons against the salary cap.

--Field Level Media