Bruins Topped by Avalanche in Shootout to Start Road Trip

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his season-opening home point streak to 22 games for the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-3 shootout win against the Boston Bruins at Ball Arena on Monday.

Valeri Nichushkin scored the only goal of the shootout.

Mikko Rantanen, Logan O'Connor, and Sam Malinski each scored for the Avalanche (26-12-3), who have won seven of their past nine games (7-1-1). Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves.

“I thought that game had a little bit of everything, and start to finish, that's probably one of our most complete games,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Just the way we played, competed, took care of the puck. It was a really good hockey game. I thought it was a great game from our guys. Both teams, really.

“It was an awesome hockey game. Hard fought, competitive. That's one of our best of the year.”

Brad Marchand scored twice, and John Beecher scored for the Bruins (24-8-7), who had won five of their past six (5-1-0). Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves.

“I thought we won more battles after the first period,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought Colorado was on top of us in the first, and I thought we got to our puck possession game in the offensive zone. “‘Marshy’ was terrific tonight. I thought he led really well. Like he was very vocal on the bench about how we needed to get to our game and explaining to his teammates what we had to do.”

Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 11:21 of the first period on the power play, scoring on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that beat Georgiev glove side.

“We competed hard,” Marchand said. “Unfortunately, we couldn't get that second point. Had a couple opportunities. Kind of squandered the power play in overtime. So, we need to be a little bit better there, in those opportunities, closing out games. But yeah, we did a good job getting the point.”

Rantanen tied it 1-1 at 16:13 with a power-play goal when he choked down on his stick, dropped to one knee, and redirected MacKinnon’s pass over the glove of Swayman.

“I think we played such good hockey offensively, scored some big goals, and overall, spent a lot of time in their zone,” Georgiev said. “So that's really good. Their goalie was making big saves and keeping them in the game. Was a fun win.”

O’Connor gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 2:23 of the second period. He grabbed the puck after Kevin Shattenkirk and Pavel Zacha collided in their own zone, turned and stick-handled down on Swayman before beating him glove side on the breakaway.

“I was fortunate enough that they sort of ran into each other a little bit,” O’Connor said. “The puck squirted out to me there and just wanted to get it off my tape quick. It was definitely a hard fought game, but it's huge to get the two points there with the tough schedule we have right now.”

Beecher tied it 2-2 at 10:05, scoring off the rebound of Danton Heinen’s wraparound shot.

Malinski put the Avalanche ahead 3-2 at 17:56 of with a wrist shot from the blue line. He was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Monday morning.

Marchand tied it 3-3 at 5:46 of the third period when he crashed the far side of the net and redirected Charlie Coyle’s cross-zone pass. The tally put him past Rick Middleton for sole possession of fifth place on Boston’s all-time scoring list with 899 points (389 goals, 510 assists). He also recorded his 61st career multigoal game and passed David Pastrnak for fifth-most in Bruins franchise history. 

“The whole line did a great job just controlling the puck in the O-zone and having good possession time,” Marchand said. “I just tried to drive the net, open up a lane or something, and ‘CC’ did a great job kind of seeing me going there, and made a great play to throw it off my body.”

Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Coyle extended his point streak to seven games (four goals, five assists).