Postgame Wrap-Up: Avs Comeback for 6-3 Win

After falling behind early in the contest, the Colorado Avalanche played to its identity in the second half of the game to compete a comeback victory.
The Ottawa Senators took an early lead with two first-period tallies but Colorado had six different goal scorers in the game, including four in the third period, en route to a 6-3 win at Pepsi Center on Friday night.
"I like watching our team play like that. The aggressiveness of us on our forecheck and hunting pucks down and staying on pucks and winning battles," head coach Jared Bednar said of the third period. "The reloads from the goal line to the top of the circles and blue line in the offensive zone and turning pucks back--when you reload like that then your D can stay up, and they kept pucks alive and we had secondary attacks.

"We had a couple great possession shifts, but it wasn't just on the perimeter. There was intent to go to the net, there was a purpose. Ideally you would like to play like that 60 minutes a night. I don't know how feasible that is, but to know that we have that in us and we can come back to this and look at it and keep encouraging our guys to repeat it I think is a step forward."
Colorado's four goals in the third period are a season high for a single frame and the most markers the Avs had recorded in a stanza since March 2, 2018 versus the Minnesota Wild.
Samuel Girard got Colorado on the board by picking up a loose puck in the slot to make it a 2-1 game midway through the second period.

"G got us going there, he kind of jumped in and nice little toe drag, he threw it upstairs," Tyson Barrie said of Girard's goal. "[The defensemen] were just trying to get more active and get in the play. Get up in the play and be the fourth man on the rush, and once we do get on the blue line, just try to dive in and be a little bit more active. I think it worked well for us."
Twelve seconds after the tally, the Senators regained their two-goal lead but Colorado showed no signs of panic and continued to push the pace of the game.
The Avalanche outshot the Senators 14-4 in the third period and finished with a 37-24 edge in the category for the contest.
"It shows how good of a team we are and how we want to play," said forward Mikko Rantanen. "Sometimes there is games like that, you have a slow start like we had in the first and then you bounce back in the second to play. Second and third period, we were on the puck. Even when we score 2-1 goal and then right after, seconds later they score 3-1. You could go down but the whole team knew we were playing better than them, and we wanted to come back and that's what we did."
In addition to Girard, Rantanen, Carl Soderberg, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Nieto also scored in the contest. It is the second time this season Colorado has registered six tallies in a game.
BARRIE MOVES UP AVS LEADERBOARD: Tyson Barrie recorded three assists in the contest and now has 256 career points, passing Sandis Ozolinsh (253) for sole possession of third place on the franchise's all-time list for scoring by a defenseman.
"Right from the start of the game, he was skating, making plays," Bednar said of Barrie. "I think when he is moving his feet like that and he wants to be involved, he is an aggressive player, he is real dangerous and I thought he was helping us out a lot offensively tonight along with some of our other D."
He now has 61 markers and 195 assists in his NHL career and needs one more tally to tie Rob Blake (62) for third place for goals by a defenseman in franchise history.

FOUR-POINT NIGHT FOR MIKKO:Mikko Rantanen matched his career- high with four points (one goal, three assists) in the outing.
It is the fifth time he has had a four-point performance and all have come since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the most of any player in the NHL.
The right wing now leads the league with 20 points and 15 assists after 11 games. His 20 points in October rank second (Joe Sakic, 21 in 1996-97) for the most points in the month in Avalanche history (since 1995-96).
MORE FROM THE TOP LINE:Gabriel Landeskog netted his league-leading fourth game-winning goal of the season, matching the Avalanche record for winning tallies in a single month (Marek Svatos, November 2005; Milan Hejduk, December 2000; Peter Forsberg, October 2000).
Landeskog and linemate Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and two assists, and their tallies marked the ninth goal of the season for each player. It ties the Colorado record for goals in the month of October (Sakic, 1997-98; Forsberg, 2000-01; Chris Stewart, 2010-11; Matt Duchene, 2013-14).
MacKinnon, who recorded his third three-point game of the campaign, ranks second in the league in scoring with 18 points (nine goals, nine assists).

TEAM NOTES: The Avalanche improved to 7-2-2 on the season, tied with the Nashville Predators for first place in the NHL.
The win over the Senators concluded a stretch of six straight and nine-of-10 outings against the Eastern Conference. The Avs are now 6-2-1 against teams from the East this season.
Colorado finished 2-for-3 on the power play to improve to 11-for-40 (27.5 percent) with the man advantage this season. The squad has scored at least one power-play goal in nine of its 11 outings this campaign.
The Avalanche penalty kill held Ottawa scoreless on two chances to improve to 42-for-47 in 2018-19. The unit is 14-for-15 (93.3 percent) at home, good for third in the league so far this season.
The Avs have recorded 39 goals this season, the most of any team, and their 3.55 goals-per-game average ranks seventh.
QUICK TURNAROUND:Colorado completes its first of 11 back-to-back sets this season on Saturday at the Minnesota Wild. It also marks the end of a stretch that had the Avs playing seven games in 12 days.
"This is a real tough game, schedule wise. I mean you can circle a handful of games on the schedule that are real tough, and this is one," Bednar said of the meeting in Minnesota. "They are sitting waiting for us and we are at the end of one of our busiest stretches of the year.
"It's a tough one, you know, but hopefully getting the points here tonight--we pushed some of our guys real hard to get these points--and hopefully we will give them as much rest as we possibly can to get them ready to go for tomorrow. It is a rivalry game for us, we know there is no love lost between us and Minny, so hopefully we can push through one more. Then they will get at least two days off here coming up before we hit our next opponent."
It is the second meeting between the Central Division-rivals this season. The Avalanche skated to a 4-1 victory at Pepsi Center on opening night.