Nichushkin Scores First Career Overtime Goal

Head coach Jared Bednar liked what he had seen from forward Valeri Nichushkin through the first 60 minutes of Friday's game and put the Colorado Avalanche forward on the ice to begin overtime as the team was looking to complete a comeback.
Roughly two minutes later on his second shift of OT, Nichushkin rewarded his coach for the trust he placed in him by tallying his second goal of the night to give the Avs a 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena.

"I thought he played well, no question," Bednar said of Nichushkin. "If you look at his two goals, and even [Brandon] Saad's goal, they're all scored within a foot of the blue paint. So he was driving, it reminded me of a lot of plays that he was making last year and coming to the net hard with and without the puck."
The second tally was Nichushkin's first overtime goal of his NHL career and third game-winner of the season. Three of Nichushkin's four markers on the campaign have been of the game-winning variety--tied for the most on the team and his most in a season--and he now has nine such markers in his career.
The winning sequence at 2:45 of the 3-on-3 stanza was created after Nichushkin received a pass from Devon Toews at the blue line. The 6-foot-4 winger then drove toward Ducks goalie John Gibson in the slot and placed the puck just beyond the right pad and across the goal line to unleash a celebration from the Colorado bench.
"That was a beautiful goal you know. I'm just happy for him, happy for the team. He was sharp tonight," said Brandon Saad, who had assists on both of Nichushkin's tallies for his first three-point game of the season. "I think any time he uses his big body and his speed, he's tough to handle and you can see that all on showcase tonight."

It was the third multi-goal game of Nichushkin's career and his first with the Avalanche. He last tallied twice in an outing on Jan. 3, 2016 at the New York Islanders while a member of the Dallas Stars.
"That's exactly what we need. We need more guys to step up," said Joonas Donskoi of Nichushkin's performance. "I think we've had a hard time scoring goals lately, so a guy like Val stepping up tonight, that's huge. I'm happy for him, he comes to the rink, he works hard every day, and he really deserved those goals and I'm happy for him."
Down 2-0 in the second period, the Chelyabinsk, Russia, native sparked Colorado's rally with 5:14 remaining before the intermission and eight seconds after a power-play chance had expired. Finding space above the crease, Nichushkin took Donskoi's centering pass from the circle and slammed the puck into the back of the net to get the Avalanche on the scoreboard.
"I feel like it was kind of like a broken play, Saad found me in the middle and I was just trying to take it to the net," Donskoi said. "I saw Val going to the net, so I was just trying to make a pass to him and it worked out… It was a big goal."

Saad tallied 2:37 later for the Avs to knot the outing at 2-2 heading into the third stanza, and he credits the Russian's first marker for rejuvenating the team's play at the time.
"I think when we scored there at the end of the power play," Saad said of the turning point in the contest. "You know, sometimes you might not be playing your best but when you can score a goal you kind of get that buzz and that feeling on the team. So it seemed after that we had some jump and we finished off the game well."
It was the Avalanche's first comeback victory of the season after trailing following the first period, and it was the first time that the club had overcome a two-goal deficit since Oct. 18, 2019 when it won 5-4 in overtime at the Florida Panthers.

MACK OUT, SHERWOOD IN

Nathan MacKinnon missed his second game of the season as he was scratched due to an upper-body injury.
MacKinnon took part in the team's morning skate earlier in the day, but it was determined afterward that the forward wouldn't be able to play. He was hurt midway through the third period of the Avalanche's previous outing on Wednesday in San Jose after Joachim Blichfeld delivered an illegal check to the head that resulted in the Sharks forward receiving a two-game suspension from the league.
"In the afternoon he came down and wasn't feeling good, so the protocol says you can't play and we're not going to put him out there and risk him getting hurt or making it worse," Bednar said after the contest of MacKinnon. "So he was out and I don't know what that means as far as tomorrow or the next day, but I assuming he's going to miss a couple games here."
With MacKinnon unable to play, Kiefer Sherwood suited up in his first game in more than a month. The forward from Columbus, Ohio, last played for the Avs on Feb. 2 versus the Minnesota Wild before missing time while in the league's COVID protocol and then either on the taxi squad or with the AHL Colorado Eagles
Sherwood, who began the contest on a line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Logan O'Connor, was also playing against his former team for the first time, as he spent the previous two seasons in the Ducks organization and played in 60 career NHL games with the franchise.

MORE INJURY UPDATES

Matt Calvert could possibly return to the Avalanche's lineup as soon as the team's next game on Saturday, Bednar said following morning skate.
Calvert has missed the last five contests with an upper-body injury but participated in Friday's pregame practice in a red, non-contact jersey after skating on his own prior. Bowen Byram joined Calvert in the semi-solo skate as the rookie went on to miss his third-straight outing with his own upper-body ailment.
Cale Makar was out of the lineup for the fourth consecutive game with an upper-body, and he is likely to miss the Avs' contests on Saturday versus the Ducks and Monday against the Arizona Coyotes as well.
Dennis Gilbert was added to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list on Friday (doesn't necessarily mean a positive test), but earlier in the day Bednar noted that the defenseman had been cleared for off-ice workouts after having surgery recently as a result of an upper-body injury. Gilbert has been out since Feb. 16 at the Vegas Golden Knights.
Goaltender Pavel Francouz (lower body) and defenseman Erik Johnson (upper body) remain out long term.

BACK AT BALL

Colorado will wrap up its back-to-back set on Saturday against the Ducks at Ball Arena.
It will be the conclusion of the Avs' fourth of eight back-to-backs this season. The Avalanche is 3-1-0 in the first matchup of a back-to-back and 2-0-1 in the second; the squad swept last weekend's consecutive-game set in Arizona.
Friday's contest was the start of Colorado's nine-game homestand, the team's longest continuous homestay in franchise history. The Avs will play 15 of their next 17 contests in their friendly confines.
This weekend also marks the first time that the Avalanche has played two games in as many days at home since Oct. 23-24, 2009 when it defeated the Carolina Hurricanes on the first night and the Detroit Red Wings on the second.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

The Avs and Ducks squared off for the third of eight games between the clubs this season. The Avalanche is now 2-1-0 against Anaheim.
Colorado played an overtime game for the third time this season and is now 2-1 when playing beyond 60 minutes. The Avs are 7-1-1 overall in one-goal contests.
Brandon Saad collected three points (one goal, two assists), equaling his career best (9x - last: Oct. 5, 2017 vs. Pittsburgh). The performance was Saad's fifth multi-point outing of the season.
Dan Renouf, skating in his fifth NHL contest, registered his first career point (assist).
Samuel Girard finished with 28:41 of ice time, equaling his career high from March 4, 2020 versus Anaheim (also a game that went to overtime). Devon Toews set a new career high in ice time, logging 28:15.