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Comeback win to open road trip

November 19, 2018, 4:13 PM ET [2 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Overtime finally turned into winning time for the Avalanche, who lost four consecutive games after regulation (three in OT, one in a shootout) before pulling out a 4-3 overtime win Sunday in Anaheim.

NHL leading scorer Mikko Rantanen converted Nathan MacKinnon’s pass on a 4-on-3 power play with 1.3 seconds left in the extra period to complete the Avalanche’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit.

Winning is always important, of course, but doing it before getting to a shootout is significant; the Avalanche (10-6-4) have 10 ROW wins, a tie-breaking category if needed when it comes to making the playoffs and/or playoff positioning.

“You don’t want to go to shootouts, it’s always 50-50, so it was good to get a win in overtime,” Rantanen told reporters.

Rantanen, who also had an assist against the Ducks, became the league’s first 30-point scorer (8-24-32) and joined Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic (both in 1996-97) as the only Avalanche players with at least 30 points in the first 20 games.

MacKinnon had a goal and two assists and is second in league scoring with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists). Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist and is 23rd in the league with 22 points (13 goals, nine assists).

The win was the 1,000th in Colorado history; the Avalanche have 898 regular-season wins and 102 in the playoffs since moving from Quebec to Denver before the 1995-96 season.

The Avalanche have gone 3-0-1 since losing five in a row (0-4-1). They have two games left on the road trip, Los Angeles on Wednesday and Arizona on Friday. They meet Dallas at the Pepsi Center on Saturday.

The Avalanche went on the OT power play with 14.7 seconds remaining when Pontus Aberg was called for slashing MacKinnon.

“I think our group’s maturing and managing the puck a little bit better in overtime,” coach Jared Bednar told reporters. “We’ve created some chances and we have some dynamic players there, so to be able to come back and get better as the game went on was real important. To be able to finish in overtime and not have to go to a shootout is real important.”

Defenseman Nikita Zadorov returned to the lineup after being benched for the third period Wednesday against Boston and being a healthy scratch Friday against Washington.

Zadorov played 14:34, had one shot and three hits. He also took a holding penalty early in the second period shortly after Sven Andrighetto tied the game 1-1. The Ducks went ahead 2-1 on the ensuing power play and eventually grabbed a 3-1 lead.

MacKinnon scored a power-play goal with 1:55 remaining in the second to pull the Avalanche within 3-2 and Landeskog tied matters at 11:20 of the third.

"We knew we had a lot of gas in the tank, so we knew that we were going to outplay them in the third, and I think that's what we did,” Rantanen told reporters. “They defended pretty well, but we got it done, so that is the biggest thing."

*****

Goalie Philipp Grubauer, making his second start in a row, had 30 saves, nine in the third period and three in overtime … Tyson Barrie had an assist to tie Adam Foote (203) for second in franchise history for a defenseman. John-Michael Liles is first with 207.

Colin Wilson (lower-body injury) and Matt Nieto (LBI) didn't play, so Marko Dano returned to the lineup … Defenseman Mark Barberio was a healthy scratch.




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