Rantanen OT goal lifts Avalanche past Canadiens

DENVER -- Mikko Rantanen scored at 1:51 of overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Rantanen finished a 2-on-1 with Devon Toews with a shot that beat Jake Allen five-hole just moments after Alexandar Georgiev made a big stop against Jonathan Drouin at the other end.
"It is [fun]. It is because we win, right," Rantanen said. "That's the biggest thing for me too. So, I'm glad I was able to help with that today."
Artturi Lehkonen scored, and Rantanen finished with a goal and an assist for Colorado (18-11-2), which went 4-1-0 during a five-game homestand. Georgiev made 19 saves.
"Didn't like our first, but after that we were excellent," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I think that we're doing the right things in order to win hockey games, and No. 1 for me is our checking. If we're not going to score a lot of goals, I said it the other night, we've got to be willing to win games 1-0 and 2-1 and work towards that."

Anthony Richard scored his first NHL goal, and Allen made 34 saves for Montreal (15-15-3), which has lost four of five (1-3-1).
"They played on top of us tonight," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "We really struggled versus their pressure. Part of that is them, part of it is us not having a lot of gas and being tired. It's tough to manage that kind of pressure when you just don't have the legs, you don't have the lungs. The thing that goes first is the mind, and it's hard to make good decisions when the mind's gone.
"I was really pleased to get to the overtime. If we got two points, we would have stole two points. We didn't deserve two tonight, and I'm happy we got the point."
Richard scored on a breakaway to make it 1-0 at 1:48 of the first period, skating past two defenders in the neutral zone before beating Georgiev glove side. Richard played 389 games over eight seasons in the American Hockey League prior to scoring in his fourth NHL game.
"I really like that play when I've got a [defenseman] on my back when coming with a lot of speed," Richard said. "That goalie, they're kind of cheating on their blocker side usually because I'm coming with so much speed. They kind of know you're trying to go blocker side, so sometimes when you just -- a little bit like [Nick] Suzuki is doing in the shootout -- if you can find a little hole on the opposite side, sometimes you can get lucky and it goes in.
"It's a nice moment for me and my family. So, even with the loss, I'll try to enjoy it a little bit, and it should be a nice couple hours to text my family and my friends."

Lehkonen tied it at 1-1 on the power play with a snap shot from between the circles at 2:16 of the third period. It was his first game against the Canadiens since they traded him to the Avalanche on March 21.
"A really, really good dish there [from Rantanen]," Lehkonen said. "I had a lot of time, so I could receive and shoot it. I was just trying to hit the net."
NOTES: Richard (26 years, 1 day) became the fourth Canadiens player in the past 30 years to score his first NHL goal at age 26 or older (Corey Schueneman, 26 years, 196 days on March 17; Jakub Jerabek at 26 years, 250 days on Jan. 17, 2018; and Mark Streit at 28 years, 34 days on Jan. 14, 2006). … Denis Malgin made his Avalanche debut after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. He had three shots and three hits in a season-high 16:21 of ice time. … Rantanen scored his 18th even-strength goal, which is tied with Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars for most in the NHL.