In Denver, Boston’s Brad Marchand scored his second goal of the game in the sixth minute of the third period on Monday to knot the Avalanche, 3-3, and send the Bruins to extra time.
The extra session solved nothing and Valeri Nichushkin hit for the only marker on penalties to give Colorado a 4-3 win.
The Avalanche moved to 26-12-3.
“I thought that game had a little bit of everything, and start to finish, that’s probably one of our most complete games,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Just the way we played, competed, took care of the puck. It was a really good hockey game. I thought it was a great game from our guys. Both teams, really.
“It was an awesome hockey game. Hard fought, competitive. That’s one of our best of the year.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves in the win.
“I think we played such good hockey offensively, scored some big goals, and overall, spent a lot of time in their zone,” Georgiev said. “So that’s really good. Their goalie was making big saves and keeping them in the game. Was a fun win.”
Marchand scored off the power play at 11:22 of the opening stanza to stake the Bruins to a 1-0 lead.
“We competed hard,” Marchand said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get that second point. Had a couple opportunities. Kind of squandered the power play in overtime. So, we need to be a little bit better there, in those opportunities, closing out games. But yeah, we did a good job getting the point.”
The Avs’ Mikko Rantanen scored at 16:13 if the first, off the power play, to tie the game, 1-1.
The Bruins dropped to 24-8-7.
“I thought we won more battles after the first period,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought Colorado was on top of us in the first, and I thought we got to our puck possession game in the offensive zone. “‘Marshy’ was terrific tonight. I thought he led really well. Like he was very vocal on the bench about how we needed to get to our game and explaining to his teammates what we had to do.”
In the middle frame,Logan O’Connor scored at 2:23 off a breakaway after two Bruins’ skaters collided leaving a free puck, leading to a 2-1 lead to the Avs..
“I was fortunate enough that they sort of ran into each other a little bit,” O’Connor said. “The puck squirted out to me there and just wanted to get it off my tape quick. It was definitely a hard fought game, but it’s huge to get the two points there with the tough schedule we have right now.”
The Bruins tied it, 2-2, off a marker from John Beecher with 10 minutes left in the second period.
Malinski was on a call-up from the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League.
Colorado reclaimed the lead at 17:56 of the middle frame on a strike by Sam Malinski , “Any time you’re able to contribute to a big win, it feels good, and I think considering it’s my first game back, it makes it a little bit more special,” Malinski said. “I was just trying to get a puck down to the net. The guy was in my lane, so I kind of had to do a little stutter there, and pushed back on my forehand and just kind of ripped it down to the net. Luckily it went in.”
Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves in the loss.
“The whole line did a great job just controlling the puck in the O-zone and having good possession time,” Marchand said. “I just tried to drive the net, open up a lane or something, and ‘CC’ did a great job kind of seeing me going there, and made a great play to throw it off my body.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.