Nathan MacKinnon scored at 4:19 of overtime, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to their first win of the season, a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Denver on Friday night.
MacKinnon added an assist, and Ross Colton scored twice in the third period, including a go-ahead goal midway through. Casey Mittelstadt also had a goal and an assist, Mikko Rantanen contributed three assists and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 17 shots for Colorado.
MacKinnon got the winner when he skated through three Anaheim players and put a shot on Lukas Dostal, who made the initial save before the puck trickled through. It was MacKinnon’s second of the season and avoided the Avalanche’s first 0-5-0 start since moving to Denver in 1995.
Troy Terry, Leo Carlsson and Ryan Strome had goals and Dostal made 45 saves for Anaheim.
Colton, who tied the game 35 seconds into the third period, put Colorado ahead with his fourth goal of the season, a one-timer past Dostal at 11:42.
It is the first time the Avalanche have led in the third period this season.
The Ducks had back-to-back power-play chances in the final 5:24 and pulled Dostal for the final minutes. They didn’t score on the power play but Terry tied it with his third goal of the season at 19:47.
The Ducks took a 1-0 lead at 6:05 of the first on Carlsson’s second goal of the season.
Anaheim scored again at 19:36 of the first when Colorado thought the play was dead after the puck went off the netting behind the goal.
Samuel Girard softly sent the puck out of the zone, where it was picked up by Brian Dumoulin, who skated across the blue line and threw a shot off of Georgiev. The rebound fell in front of Georgiev, and Strome cleaned it up for his first of the season.
The Avalanche got one back 57 seconds into the middle period when Nikolai Kovalenko hit Mittelstadt with a pass in the neutral zone. Mittelstadt skated in alone on Dostal and beat him with a backhander for his fourth of the season.
–Field Level Media
