Rapid Recap: Avalanche 5, Canucks 4 (OT)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and Cale Makar registered a career-high four points in the Colorado Avalanche's 5-4 overtime victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Makar leads all rookies in scoring with 22 points, while MacKinnon increased his point total to 29 (13 goals, 16 assists) on the season.
With the game tied 1-1 after the opening frame, the Avalanche responded with two goals in the second period from MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri to grab the lead. Vancouver knotted the game late in the third, but MacKinnon scored just 27 seconds into the OT period to give Colorado the extra point.

Adam Gaudette tallied twice in the outing for the Canucks.
Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, while J.T. Compher also had a multi-point outing with a pair of helpers. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Avs, and Erik Johnson and Nikita Zadorov contributed assists as well.
The Avalanche improved to 2-1-0 on its five-game road trip and sports a 12-6-2 record (26 points) at the 20-game mark of the season.
Statistics
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Highlights
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Video: Coach Bednar Postgame

THE GOALS

1st Period
6:56 COL (1-0) - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare redirected Erik Johnson's shot from the point into the cage.
18:27 VAN (1-1) - PPG, Josh Leivo found Adam Gaudette open in the slot and Gaudette scored into an empty part of the net.
2nd Period
7:51 COL (2-1) - PPG, Nathan MacKinnon scored on a one-time shot from the left circle off a pass from Cale Makar.
11:28 COL (3-1) - Nazem Kadri tallied on a wrister from the left circle after gaining a pass from Cale Makar at the blue line.
19:58 VAN (3-2) - PPG, Adam Gaudette buried his second goal of the game after the puck came to him at the right circle.
3rd Period
6:09 COL (4-2) - Nathan MacKinnon sent a centering pass to Andre Burakovsky, who fired a snap shot into the net
17:23 VAN (4-3) - Alexander Edler scored while the Canucks had an extra attacker on the ice with their goalie pulled.
19:00 VAN (4-4) - Brock Boeser tied the game with Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko pulled for an extra skater.
Overtime
0:27 COL (5-4) - Nathan MacKinnon scored his second OT goal of the season after driving to the net with speed and placing a shot short-side. Cale Makar recorded his fourth assist of the game on the marker.
Final: Avalanche - 5 | Canucks - 4 (Overtime)

3 STARS

Selected by Hockey Night In Canada

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 1 for 5
Vancouver: 2 for 6

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Antoine Bibeau made his first start with the Avalanche and made 28 saves.
Vancouver: Thatcher Demko allowed five goals on 23 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Healthy Diet of Cale:Cale Makar set a new career high for assists and points in a game with four helpers, extending his rookie scoring lead to 22 points (five goals, 17 assists)… He is the second rookie defenseman in franchise history to record four points in a game, joining Jeff Brown (one goal, three assists) on Oct. 13, 1986 at Vancouver.
Makar is the fourth blueliner in NHL history to be the first rookie to reach the 20-point mark, joining Nicklas Lidstrom (22 games with Detroit in 1991-92), Bobby Orr (33 games with Boston in 1966-67) and Hap Day (18 games with Toronto St. Pats in 1924-25)… Makar's 20 points on the year are tied with John-Michael Liles (20 in 2010-11) for the most by a defenseman through the team's first 20 games of a season in Avalanche history (since 1995-96), and they are the most by a Colorado rookie (forward or defense) through his first 20 career games.
Overall, Makar required the sixth fewest contests to reach the 20-point threshold (regular season only) among all players to debut with the franchise (Real Cloutier, 15; Peter Stastny, 16; Marian Stastny, 17; Joe Sakic, 17; Anton Stastny, 18). He is the first NHL defenseman to record at least 20 points in his first 20 career outings since Larry Murphy recorded 24 points with the Los Angeles Kings in 1980-81.

NOTEBOOK

Nathan MacKinnon now has 431 career points, surpassing Matt Duchene (428) for 10th place on the franchise's all-time scoring list… His two tallies give him 168 for his career, passing Alex Tanguy for sixth place in Avs history in goals (since 1995-96)… MacKinnon scored the eighth overtime goal of his career, surpassing Joe Sakic to take sole possession of second place in franchise history in overtime-winners. Only Milan Hejduk (nine) has scored more in OT with the Avalanche… MacKinnon has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his last five games… Makar recorded his third multi-point game of the season and finished with a career-best plus-3 rating… Nazem Kadri scored to extend his season-long point streak to five games (two goals, four assists)… Nikita Zadorov recorded an assist in his return to the lineup… Andre Burakovsky has consecutive multi-point games for the first time since Jan. 16-19, 2017. He has four points (three goals, one assist) over his last two outings and ranks third on the team with 16 points (eight goals, eight assists)... Antoine Bibeau recorded the win in net, the fourth netminder to registered a victory on the squad, making this the second Avalanche team to have 4 different goalies with a win (also 2005-06).

QUOTABLE

Nathan MacKinnon on his overtime goal: "I saw [Nazem Kadri] go low-blocker earlier in the game, and I figured that would be a good spot to shoot. They got a little confused in the neutral zone so I tried to take advantage of it."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

All smiles

ROSTER REPORT

The Avalanche reassigned defenseman Kevin Connauton on Saturday afternoon and activated Nikita Zadorov from injured reserve… Jayson Megna returned to the lineup after being scratched on Thursday in Edmonton… Goaltender Antoine Bibeau made his first NHL start since Dec. 29, 2016 at the Tampa Bay Lightning as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

INJURY UPDATE

Nikita Zadorov returned to game action after missing three games following surgery to repair his broken jaw… Tyson Jost missed his first game of the season and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury… Goaltenders Philipp Grubauer (lower body) and Pavel Francouz (concussion protocol) are on the trip and continue to make progress in their recoveries, each skated earlier in the day… Gabriel Landeskog (out indefinitely), Mikko Rantanen (week-to-week) and Colin Wilson (week-to-week) remain in Colorado with lower-body injuries... Matt Calvert left the game with 2:37 remaining in the contest after taking a puck to the head.

UP NEXT

The Avalanche has two days between games as the team travels back across the Rocky Mountains and to Alberta to face the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. It will be the fourth Western Canada city the Avs will visit during their five-game road trip, which also had stops in Winnipeg and Edmonton. Colorado wraps up the road swing on Thursday back in the United States at the division rival Minnesota Wild.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
11 Matt Calvert - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 72 Joonas Donskoi
95 Andre Burakovsky - 91 Nazem Kadri - 37 J.T. Compher
83 Matt Nieto 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
12 Jayson Megna - 81 Vladislav Kamenev - 36 T.J. Tynan
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
35 Antoine Bibeau (starter)
30 Adam Werner (backup)