LAS VEGAS — It was a wild Saturday night in Sin City.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the deciding goal in the shootout to give the Colorado Avalanche a 6-5 victory at T-Mobile Arena against the Vegas Golden Knights.
This Avalanche team hasn’t played in many back-and-forth chaotic games this season. The Avs clawed back from 2-0, 4-2 and 5-4 deficits in what was easily the craziest contest of this Colorado campaign to date.
Colton Sissons got behind Martin Necas, who scored twice for Colorado, and was able to avoid a Scott Wedgewood pokecheck attempt and tuck a backhanded shot inside the left post with exactly four minutes left in the third period to give Vegas a 5-4 lead.
It looked like a third regulation loss of the season was imminent. It was not.
MacKinnon found Artturi Lehkonen in the slot for a one-timer with 1:57 and the Avs found a 6-on-5 goal to even this one again at 5-5. It was MacKinnon’s third point of the third period.
Sam Malinski had three assists.
Vegas forged its second two-goal advantage of the night with scores on back-to-back shifts in the second period. A little more than a minute after Colorado had tied this contest at 2-2, Ben Hutton put the home team back in front with a one-timer from Alexander Holtz at 11:36 of the second.
Brett Howden cut through the middle of the ice on a rush the next shift and was able to redirect Reilly Smith’s centering pass past Scott Wedgewood at 12:05.
The Avs haven’t had to chase games in the third period often this year, but hunted down the Knights again, with the top line scoring twice in less than five minutes. MacKinnon set up Necas for a one-timer from the left circle at 3:52 of the third period to make it 4-3. It was Necas’ second of the game and 18th of the season.
Colorado kept the push on and found a flurry of chances. Malinski’s shot from the right point dribbled through Vegas goaltender Carter Hart, and MacKinnon was there to sweep it over the goal line. That was MacKinnon’s league-leading 31st goal of the season.
Alexander Holtz had the lone goal of the opening period to give Vegas the lead. Tomas Hertl won an offensive zone faceoff back to Noah Hanafin at the left point, and the defenseman hit Holtz cutting to the net near the right post for a redirection at 2:43 of the first.
The Golden Knights quickly made it a 2-0 game in the second period. Devon Toews was unable to connect on MacKinnon’s cross-ice pass for a one-timer in the right circle. One he missed, Ivan Barbashev collected the puck, and the Avs were caught with four guys too deep in the offensive zone.
Barbahsev and Mitch Marner went the other way on a 2-on-1, and the latter made a great play to get a pass out of his skates and the puck back over to the former for a goal just 34 seconds into the middle period. This is only the fifth time in 37 games that Colorado has trailed by two goals in a contest.
For the third time in those five games, the Avs were able to get back even at some point. Both of Colorado’s second-period tallies came on weird bounces.
Samuel Girard tried to one-touch the puck to Artturi Lehkonen in the slot, but it went of Vegas defenseman Jeremy Lauzon’s stick and fluttered over Hart’s shoulder at 5:19 of the second. It was Girard’s third goal of the season, and his second straight tally for the Avs. Girard had the lone goal in a 1-0 win Tuesday against Utah in the final game before the break.
Necas leveled the score midway through the second. Necas collected a pass from Sam Malinski and turned to shoot from near the top of the right circle. His shot was going wide left, but it bounced off defenseman Kaeden Korczak and trickled past Hart.
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