In Denver, the Edmonton Oilers blew a big lead for the second game in a row, only to lose in extra time on Sunday.
This time it was the Colorado Avalanche overcoming a 3-0 deficit from the first period and a 5-3 hole in the third period to get the win.
Logan O’Connor scored midway through the third period to cut the Oilers advantage to 5-4, and Artturi Lehkonen scored at 15:48 to get the trams even at 5-5.
Mikko Rantanen scored with 22 seconds left ni the extra session for the 6-5 win to the Avs.
“First of all, really good job by ‘Comph’ to win the draw; it’s really important in the OT,” Rantanen said. “And [I] did a little scissor [with] ‘Toewser’ — and I think Toewser ran a little pick on [Darnell Nurse there — so, gave me a little bit more room. He kind of hooked me, so [Jack] Campbell maybe thought I was shooting it [and] then he was out of [the net] after. So, I was glad to help the team win.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 35 saves in the Colorado win.
The Avalanche improved to 31-19-5 off their third straight win.
“It was an ugly game, on our side of it anyway,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We had some resilience, no question. It’s just one of those nights where that wasn’t anywhere near our best, and I didn’t think it was not from lack of want. But I felt like we lacked energy there which is understandable with what’s been going on and if you’re mentally not engaged the way you have to be, it can be a tough night, and we survived it. We were fortunate to get two points out of it, but we did.”
The Oilers dropped to 30-19-8.
“Normally I might dress it up and say: ‘Hey, it’s good to get a point.’ But I got to say that that was utterly disappointing for us,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We know we can defend a lot better than we did, and ultimately it cost us getting the second point. We’ll take the point and move on, but to dress it up any other way other than disappointing would be not honest.”
Warren Foegele hit for a double in the game, his first period goal gave to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead, his second extended the lead to 2-0 in the middle frame.
Leon Draisaitl connected for the 3-0 advantage in the second.
“It’s frustrating, right? We score enough goals, and the mentality has to be to defend. We’re definitely capable of it,” Foegele said. “It’s just having the right mindset. We don’t need to score more goals. We’re up three. So we got to take shorter shifts and stay above guys, and for some reason, we’re just not doing that.”
Colorado’s J.T. Compher and Valeri Nichushkin scored in the second to trim the deficit to 3-2.
Tyson Barrie stopped the rally with a late second period goal to give the Oilers a 4-2 lead headed to the third.
Nathan MacKinnon scored in the third stanza to cut the Oilers lead to 4-3.
“Good third period. It’s easy to nitpick every single night,” MacKinnon said. “We play so many games that [we’re] just going to have off periods sometimes. So, lately, it’s been really good in the thirds.”
Edmonton reclaimed the two-goal lead on a marker from Mattias Janmark .
The Oilers played with a short bench, icing 11 forwards and six defensemen.
“I think that’s excuses, and we’re not in the business of making excuses,” said Woodcroft, regarding playing with 17 skaters. “We’re in the business of getting better and that’s what we’re going to have to do because six goals against [is] not good enough.”
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Jack Campbell made 36 saves in the Oilers loss.
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