In Denver, the Arizona Coyotes scored a third period goal to tie the Avalanche to force extra time on Tuesday.
The extra session solved nothing, and Alex Galchenyuk ended the night with the deciding goal in the skills competition to give the Coyotes a 3-2 win over the Avs.
For Colorado, the loss snapped an 18-game winning streak.
“It was going to end at some point, you know what I mean?” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “It would have been nice to win this one going into the [All-Star break] feeling great and all that, but it is what it is. We’re due for a break. I think our team is excited to get off for a little while. It’s a valuable point.”
Arizona’s Lawson Crouse tied the game with 36 seconds left in the contest.
“It shouldn’t happen, especially at home the way we’ve been defending leads here, but it is what it is,” the Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen said.
Scott Wedgewood made 38 saves in the Coyotes win.
“We mentioned many times this year that we have a group with a lot of pride, a lot of character and a lot of leadership,” Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny said. “The boys take pride in the way they play, the way they bounce back. They know the [Avalanche] are a really good team; they were on a roll. They arrived here with a lot of pride, they played with a lot of passion, and they battled all the way through.”
Rantanen and Nazem Kadri were the Avs strikers.
Colorado fell to 32-8-4.
Galchenyuk also scored in regulation for Arizona.
“I put in the work trying to find my game, put a lot of effort on my two-way game,” Galchenyuk said. “Over the last few games, my game’s really been building a lot better and better and I had a great opportunity tonight.”
Arizona improved to 11-29-4.
“I was confident in myself,” Wedgewood said. “I think that’s one thing I’ve been working on, just trying. I need to go up against the best to prove I can be one of the best. So that’s one of those mantras.”
Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves in the loss.
“We know we’re a good team. We’re capable of a lot of things and we’ve been finding ways to win,” Rantanen said. “There are things we know we can be better at down the stretch. Tough schedule for us, some tough games, and obviously we want to build up our season so we finish well before we hit the playoffs. Still a lot of work to do.”
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