Artturi Lehkonen extended it to 2-0 at 6:10. He crashed the net, found the rebound of Sam Malinski’s initial point shot, and knocked it over the right leg and blocker of Lyon, who was then pulled for Luukkonen.
“Had nothing to do with Lyon,” Ruff said of the goaltender swap. “You got a backdoor tap-in and a breakaway. That has nothing to do with your goalie, and I told him that when he came off the ice too. It was just to buy some time and shake the other guys up.”
Byram cut it to 2-1 at 7:47 when he scored off the left skate of Blackwood. Thompson found the loose puck after Blackwood bobbled Alex Tuch’s initial shot and knocked it along the left pad to where Byram made the play.
“Well, first and foremost, we need wins,” Thompson said. “So that [stinks]. We lost in what I thought was a very winnable game. Obviously, we knew it was a tough game coming in, but you can't give them free offense like that right off the hop, and we're chasing a really good team. Puts yourself behind the eight-ball big time. I thought we did a good job clawing our way back, but it's tough whenever you find yourself trailing, especially against a good team like that.”
Brock Nelson made it 3-1 at 9:46 after he chipped Ross Colton’s touch-pass over the blocker from the just above the crease. Brindley fed Colton in the high slot before he tipped the pass forward through Mattias Samuelsson to Nelson for the shot.
Greenway cut it to 3-2 at 13:28, one-timing Owen Power’s bouncing pass through Blackwood. Power chipped the puck from the blue line to Greenway, who was standing on one foot when he fired the shot from the left circle.
Landeskog appeared to score at 19:07, but the play was initially called no goal on the ice due to goaltender interference. Colorado challenged, but video review upheld the call.
“I knew it was going to be a 50-50, and I challenged it anyway, because we stop outside the crease. We're not making any contact, and there was some body contact on our guy,” Bednar said. “I think if they call it a goal on the ice, if [Buffalo] challenges it's staying a goal. And I had the feeling that if they called it no-goal, that it might stay no-goal.
“But our penalty kill’s been doing a great job. I thought it was worth the risk, because I still feel like he's doing everything in his power to avoid the goalie and gets bumped in.”
Thompson tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 14:56 of the second period. Isak Rosen fed him for a one-timer from the top of the left circle that went off the bottom of Blackwood’s blocker.
Brindley put Colorado back ahead 4-3 at 16:22 after his snap shot from just above the right dot caromed off the stick of Power and went in far side.
Necas extended it to 5-3 at 16:53 of the third period when he one-timed MacKinnon’s centering pass from behind the net over the blocker from between the circles.
“We kind of almost kill ourselves in these games,” said Luukkonen. “We kind of do certain things to let the game go away from our hands, and then we start to chase it after that. We let it go, and then we start to play as well as we can, but it's usually too late after that. Every night, you play against a good team, and every team kind of is good at shutting it down when you lose the lead. So we're not making it easy for ourselves right now.
“We didn't start good, but it wasn't as bad of a game as it kind of looked from the start. We pushed back. After that, we kind of played a good game. So, yeah, that's kind of the positive about it.”
