Rantanen, Avalanche rally for win against Bruins

DENVER -- The Colorado Avalanche scored five consecutive goals, four in the third period, in a 6-3 win against the Boston Bruins at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists. He leads the NHL in scoring with 29 points (seven goals, 22 assists).
Nathan MacKinnon scored on a 3-on-2 rush to give the Avalanche a 4-3 lead at 9:02 of the third, Tyson Jost made it 5-3 on the power play at 15:39, and Alex Kerfoot scored with 15 seconds left for the 6-3 final score.
"Mikko gave me so much room, it was a great play by him," said MacKinnon, who beat goalie Jaroslav Halak with a shot from the right face-off circle off a pass from Rantanen. "I just got the shot off quick, but that was all Mikko there."
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Avalanche highlights]
Colorado tied it 3-3 on Matt Calvert's goal at 2:11 of the third.
The Avalanche's top line of Gabriel Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen combined for three goals and three assists. The Bruins' top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists.
"It's tough against that line. We saw a lot of them tonight," MacKinnon said. "I thought we did a pretty good job. We won our matchup, and that was the goal tonight."
Jake DeBrusk scored twice, Pastrnak scored his NHL-leading 17th goal and had an assist, and Halak made 19 saves for the Bruins (10-6-2), who lost for the first time in three games.
Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves for the Avalanche (9-6-3), who have won two straight after a five-game losing streak.
"We made mistakes, and some of those mistakes we could have helped ourselves, and then you need saves in those situations," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We gave them a lead, and that's when you hope [Halak] comes through for us. He did a pretty good job on one-and-done, but it was just those odd-man rushes against good players that cost us."

The Bruins took a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by Pastrnak and DeBrusk.
Pastrnak was in front with David Backes when he tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal at 16:43. David Krejci's shot from the left circle hit Backes' stick and Pastrnak knocked it in.
DeBrusk beat Varlamov blocker side on a breakaway with 40 seconds remaining in the period after a giveaway by MacKinnon to make it 2-1.
Colorado took a 1-0 lead at 10:16 when Landeskog beat Halak from the right circle off a pass from Rantanen.
DeBrusk scored his second of the game at 3:05 of the second period on the power play for a 3-1 Boston lead. Pastrnak shot from just inside the blue line, and DeBrusk tipped it in.

The Avalanche made it 3-2 on Rantanen's power-play goal at 8:47 with a shot from the right circle that went under Halak's arm.
"I think our guys felt confident that we'd have the ability to go up another notch, and we did that in the second and third," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "It doesn't always work out that way, but tonight it did.
"It's big for us because we just went through a little stretch where we couldn't win, and we went into Edmonton and had a really nice game (a 4-1 win against the Oilers on Sunday), and we tried to continue that tonight. You have a great game, you want to repeat it."
Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara did not return for the second period after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first. Cassidy did not have an update.

They said it

"It was a high-tempo, high-paced game. There was a lot of back-and-forth. There weren't that many shots. They capitalized on the power play and obviously in the third did things a little better and got the result that shows for it." -- Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron
"It's still early. I don't like to look too much at numbers. I look much more at the standings and where we are as a team because that's the biggest thing. Our goal is to get into the playoffs, that's what we want to do." -- Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen on leading the NHL in scoring

Need to know

The line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen has combined for 75 points (31 goals, 44 assists) in 18 games. … Pastrnak has five goals and three assists in a three-game point streak. … Bergeron has two goals and five assists in a five-game point streak. … Bergeron, MacKinnon and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers are tied for second in the NHL in scoring (26 points).

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What's next

Bruins:At the Dallas Stars on Friday (8 p.m. ET; SNE, SNW, SNP, TVAS, FS-SW, NESN, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: Host the Washington Capitals on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, NBCSWA+, NHL.TV)