That was a tough one for the Avalanche on Saturday, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights that prevented them from moving into first place in the West Division.

Max Pacioretty scored the winner 1:56 into the extra period after defenseman Devon Toews’ stick blade broke as he was trying to clear the loose puck after Pacioretty’s original shot hit him and the post.

“I intercepted that puck and it was sitting there,” said Toews, who gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at 17:35 of the first period. “I was trying to play it with my stick and the next thing I know my blade is in the corner. I thought I had the leverage on it, I thought I had the play and unfortunately the stick let me down a little bit there.”

William Carrier and Alec Martinez scored for Vegas, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves after allowing five goals on 32 shots Thursday in the Avalanche’s 5-1 win.

Vegas (23-8-1) leads the Avalanche (21-8-4) by one point in the standings, and has a game in hand.

The Avalanche have a point in 10 straight games, going 8-0-2 in the streak.

The loss ended Philipp Grubauer’s winning streak at eight games. He had three shutouts in the streak and allowed one goal in each of the other five games.

Joonas Donskoi also scored for the Avalanche, and Grubauer made 31 saves, including a glove stop against Shea Theodore on a 3-on-1 rush 48 seconds into overtime after Nathan MacKinnon was tripped in the offensive zone.

“I didn’t like the non-call on MacKinnon, especially when it puts them on a 3-on-1,” coach Jared Bednar said. “Like if that pucks is squirting back out to our point man and they feel like they didn’t see it clear, fine.

“But to give them that opportunity to win the hockey game, Grubi makes a huge save on that and keeps us in and we mess up a little later, but that could’ve been an opportunity for us to go on the 4-on-3 (power play) for sure.”

Donskoi scored on the first shot of the game to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 1:16 of the first period. He toe-dragged around Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb before shooting short side from the right circle.

Martinez tied 1-1 at 16:32, one-timing a pass from Chandler Stephenson in the right circle on the power play.

Toews, who matched his career high with his sixth goal, put the Avalanche in front with a shot from the top of the slot off a return pass from MacKinnon.

“I felt like we did not have our best game,” said Donskoi, who has six goals and four assists in his past eight games. “We spent too much time in our own end. We knew they were going to be better tonight, as they were. We were not physical enough. When they get the cycle going, it’s hard to stop it. We were battling for the first spot in our division, so obviously we wanted to get two points, but we were not able to do it.”

Vegas tied the game 2-2 at 3:40 of the second period on Carrier's deflection of Theodore’s shot.

The Golden Knights outshot the Avalanche in every period, 10-4 in the third though they didn’t capitalize on two power plays.

“We had some breakdowns, I thought Grubi was really good,” Bednar said. “The penalty kill stepped up big in the third period, we took a couple penalties. I didn’t love our third period, we didn’t get a lot going. It seemed like their checking ramped up a little bit. We just weren’t moving as well as in the first two periods.”

Bowen Byram was scratched because of an upper-body injury he sustained Thursday on a hit by Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar. Bednar said the defenseman is day-to-day, but that his status could turn into week-to-week.



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