In Denver, Matt Duchene hit for the only goal in the skills competition on Thursday night and helped send the Nashville Predators to a 5-4 win over the Avalanche.
Duchene also scored in regulation.
David Rittich made 42 saves in the Preds win.
Cale Makar, J.T. Compher, Logan O’Connor, and Artturi Lehkonen were the Colorado strikers.
Colorado dropped to 56-19-6, and have lost five of the last six matches.
The Avs surrendered two-goal leads three times in the game.
“I had no problems with our game through two periods. None. Zero. I thought we played well, especially through two periods,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We didn’t give up hardly any scoring chances. I would say the difference in the hockey game, to be fair, was ‘Kuemps’ had an off night.”
Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm scored for the Predators.
Ekhorn’s goal came early in the third period to tie the game, 4-4, making overtime necessary.
“We dug ourselves a hole early, obviously with some penalty trouble, we gave up a couple there. These are big points, there’s a difference between playing these guys or Calgary.” Ekholm said. “They had some shifts in that second period where they got momentum, but we stood tall.”
Makar and Lehkonen scored for Colorado to give them a 2-0 lead.
“To us it’s important, we felt, coming into these few games as we want to still play at a level that that’s going to give us the best chance to win and be consistent in that,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “So when you do start playoffs, regardless of who you play, that you feel good about your game and feel like your game’s in order and guys are playing the way that we need to be able to play.”
After Duchene scored, O’Connor pushed the lead back to two, at 3-1.
“It just sort of landed right where I shot it off Josi,” O’Connor said. “I think it landed right on my stick pretty much, and everyone was looking around. So fortuitous bounce for sure, but it was nice to get a greasy one there.”
Ryan Johansen got the Preds back within one at 3-2.
“[Josi] feels it goes off his stick and he looks up and he gets eight other guys on the ice to look up as well, but one guy doesn’t,” Ekholm said. “We saw it on the bench but it was too late to yell or scream at that point. So sometimes that happens, and unlucky for us but good on us to battle back.”
Compher got the Avs their final two-goal lead at 4-2 in the middle frame.
Josi scored off the power play to get the Preds within 4-3.
Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves in the Avs loss.
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