COMEBACK WIN
MacKinnon beats Detroit in OT
DETROIT» Nathan MacKinnon inadvertently put a shot off teammate Carl Soderberg’s front hip for the game-tying goal before burying the game-winner right where he wanted to — low blocker, which was just under goalie Jimmy Howard’s stick-side hand.
MacKinnon’s assist in the final minute of regulation and his goal at 2:55 of overtime lifted the Avalanche to a remarkable 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings in its first appearance at the new Little Caesars Arena.
Make no mistake, the Avs deserved the victory that made them 2-1 in a difficult four-night stretch that ended with back-to-back road games. “We’re lucky to get a point,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said of his team’s OT loss.
The Avs, who peppered Howard with 37 shots and allowed only 24, trailed 3-1 before their power play finally converted for the first time in 13 opportunities on this two-game road trip. Nail Yakupov scored with the man-advantage at 13:45 of the third period, and Soderberg’s goal tied it with 46 seconds remaining in a 6on-5 sequence with goalie Jonathan Bernier on the bench for an extra attacker.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to score a power-play goal,” said Avs defenseman Erik Johnson, who had a goal and two points in logging a game-high 30 minutes, 48 seconds — the second time he has reached 30 minutes this season. “It was a huge goal in the game. It allowed us to let the 6-on-5 team go to work and ultimately tie it up, and then Nate did his thing to win it.”
Colorado lost 5-2 on Saturday night in Nashville and arrived in Detroit at 2 a.m. Sunday. Still, the Avs limited the Red Wings to 14 shots through two periods. The visitors were losing 2-1 at the time because the Avs’ power play was 0-for-4 and Detroit got opportunistic goals from Justin Abdelkader (puck off his leg) and Andreas Athanasious (breakaway).
“We were buzzing all night, I felt, especially in the second period. We had a really good period but couldn’t get anything going (in the net),” MacKinnon said.
About his game-winning goal, which came during a 2-on-1 rush after looking off teammate Gabe Landeskog, MacKinnon said: “I had a similar play last night against Nashville and hit the post on it. I was pretty confident with that shot. It might have surprised that goalie a little bit. I shoot glove side a lot, so I might have caught him off-guard with a blocker shot. Big win.”
Right winger Mikko Rantanen had a tough night for the Avs. He committed Colorado’s three penalties, and the latter led to Niklas Kronwall’s power-play goal that gave the Red Wings a 3-1 lead with 8:53 remaining in regulation.
Rantanen entered the game with just two minors on the season. His coach will forgive him for his inadvertent penalty hat trick Sunday.
“I don’t like it when a guy takes three (penalties), that’s for sure, but as long as they’re not lazy, careless penalties — sometimes you just get caught in a spot and you end up taking penalties,” coach Jared Bednar said.
Footnote. Recently acquired Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard played in his 10th NHL game, ensuring that the teenager will not be sent back to his junior team in Quebec. Girard, 19, again played with Erik Johnson on the top pairing and logged 24:20, second most on the team.