Rantanen Buries OT Winner as Avalanche Top Canadiens 2-1

Picking up points.
The Colorado Avalanche continue to pick up points as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday night at Ball Arena, as the Avalanche concluded their five-game homestand(4-1-0). Colorado is now 18-11-2 on the season.

For the Avalanche, Artturi Lehkonen scored on the power play against his former club, while Mikko Rantanen netted the overtime winner. In net, Alexandar Georgiev made 19 saves on 20 shots. Newly acquired forward Denis Malgin made his debut for the Avalanche.
For the Candiens, Anthony Richard scored his first NHL goal. Between the pipes, Jake Allen made 34 saves on 36 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

The Avalanche fell to a 1-0 deficit after just 1:48 as the Canadiens scored on a breakaway in what wrapped up to be an otherwise uneventful and dull period where both teams produced 12 shots on net.
Jake Evans sent a pass to split Colorado's defensive pair of Erik Johnson and Samuel Girard for Richard, who skated into space and beat Georgiev short side as he scored his first NHL goal and gave Montreal a 1-0 lead.
The Avalanche dominated the second period as they held a 14-4 shot advantage, but weren't able to get a puck past Evans for the equalizer. Colorado was awarded the game's first power play at 18:16 as Montreal blueliner Arber Xhekaj was called for tripping. The Avalanche's potent power play nearly scored as J.T. Compher fed a pass to the backdoor for Valeri Nichushkin, but the puck deflected off the inside of Nichushkin's skate and popped back out to the wall.

Colorado capitalized early in the second period to tie the score 1-1 as Montreal took consecutive penalties - carrying over from the middle frame. At 2:09, Richard was sent to the penalty box for hooking. The Avalanche executed quick puck movement as Cale Makar found Rantanen at the right faceoff circle and the winger sent a feed into the slot to Lehkonen where he turned and fired his shot past Allen's blocker at 2:16.
The Avalanche outshot Montreal 9-3 in the third period and 35-19 in regulation as they forced the game into overtime.
In overtime, Georgiev denied Jonathan Drouin in tight and Rantanen collected the loose puck. The Finnish winger turned and jetted up ice with Devon Toews for an odd-man rush. The pair exchanged a give-and-go and Rantanen wired a low wrister through Allen's pads at 1:51 into overtime to seal the two-point victory for Colorado.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Lehkonen scored his ninth goal of the season and fifth on the power play as the Finnish winger played his former club for the first time since he was dealt to the Avalanche at last season's NHL Trade Deadline.
• Rantanen recorded his 22nd goal of the season and fourth game-winning goal.
• Maglin skated alongside Ben Meyers and Logan O'Connor as he made his debut for the Avalanche. The Swiss winger totaled 16:21 minutes, took one penalty, fired fired shots and threw three hits.
• Andrew Cogliano did not play after he left the game on Monday night against the New York Islanders an upper-body injury.
• Georgiev made his 22nd start of the season and his record improved to 14-6-2.
• Colorado finished the game 1-for-2 on the power play and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.
• Nathan MacKinnon (upper body) and Cogliano (upper body) were scratches for the Avalanche.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche play their final game on Friday night before the holiday break as they travel to Nashville. The puck drops between the Avs and Predators at 6 p.m. MT.