Colorado was down 4-0 more than halfway through the second period but managed to regroup after a slow start and win 5-4 in overtime.
Colorado was down 4-0 more than halfway through the second period but managed to regroup after a slow start and win 5-4 in overtime.
Jonathan Drouin had one of his best games this season with an overtime game-winning goal in the Avalanche's 5-4 comeback win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Sunday afternoon.
The Pens capitalized on several turnovers and takeaways from the Avs' slow start to go up 4-0 after nearly two full periods. Pittsburgh outplayed and outshot the Avs in the first but Sean Walker's goal with less than four minutes left in the middle frame turned the tide. With 30 seconds left in the period, Yakov Trenin brought the Avs within two.
Drouin cut the lead by one three and a half minutes into the final frame on a tape-to-tape pass from Nathan MacKinnon.
"Yeah, sometimes it's weird you just need one goal and you kind of see the ice better, or you just find each other. I think that's what we did in the third," Drouin said after the win. "We were trying to make plays, trying to tie the game up and I thought we had a hell of a third that way."
On a reverse play from Drouin's goal — MacKinnon caught a tape-to-tape pass from Drouin to one-time it to the back of the net.
“They came out really good. Obviously, I think we were a little shocked. We were pretty bad ourselves, so just a tough combination. I thought Sid (Sidney Crosby) showed why he’s still the best. He dominated us tonight, especially our line," MacKinnon said. "We had a better third for sure, but the full team effort, our depth, you know, the guys we traded for were unreal tonight. Obviously, Dru (Drouin), I thought was our best player, so full team effort to make a comeback.”
MacKinnon extended his home point-scoring streak to 34 games and his overall point-scoring streak to 18. This is his second 18-plus game point streak this season which made him the second player in NHL history to achieve that milestone. Wayne Gretzky did it twice in his career (1981-82 and 1985-86).
The 28-year-old Halifax, Nova Scotia native set a new record for most points in a season by an Avalanche player with 122. The franchise record is 139 held by Peter Stastny with the Quebec Nordiques in the 1981-82 season.
The full team effort was an example of the importance of Colorado's leadership group to help manage a comeback win the way it did.
"I think it took an exceptional effort from our guys tonight to win that hockey game. And it took our whole roster, our depth, like everybody involved in it ...," head coach Jared Bednar said. "But we had lots of guys go on tonight. And you know, I've said that about our leadership group all the time and the best example I can think of is last year coming out of the Stanley Cup — running thin up front for most of the year, but you look at the year that all those guys that came out of the Stanley Cup team, the years they had, they all had career years, you know, and here they are doing it again."
Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves on the night and allowed four goals but Bednar said it was not fully on him. The team broke down in the first almost 30 minutes of the game to give the Pens a four-goal lead.
"I felt like Gorgie (Georgiev) really settled in you know. I thought, second period we were coming and we were creating some really good chances," Bednar said. "Hit some posts, walked into some really good scoring areas and we just had a tough time putting it in the back of the net and they got a little puck luck on theirs — they earned all their goals, no question. But there's were going in and ours weren't. So eventually I felt like it could turn for us."
Colorado is atop of the Central Division but was tied in points with the Dallas Stars — who play the Arizona Coyotes Sunday night. The Avalanche face off against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
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