VANCOUVER, BC — Nathan MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game 27 seconds into overtime, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
MacKinnon used his speed to go around a Canucks defender and scored on goalie Thatcher Demko’s blocker side.
Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, and Nazem Kadri and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored to help the Avalanche improve to 4-1-0 in their last five games. Rookie defenseman Cale Makar added four assists.
Colorado goalie Antoine Bibeau, who was making his first NHL start since the 2016-17 season when he started two games for Toronto, stopped 28 shots.
Adam Gaudette had two power-play goals, and Alex Edler and Brock Boeser also scored for Vancouver, which fell to 1-4-2 in its last seven games. Josh Leivo had two assists and Demko had 18 saves.
The Canucks forced overtime when Edler and Boeser scored 1:37 apart in the third period. Both goals came with the Demko pulled for an extra attacker. Boeser tied it with one minute remaining on the rebound of Elias Pettersson’s shot.
Burakovsky put the Avs ahead 4-2 early in the third period. MacKinnon controlled play behind the Canucks’ goal, then passed to an open Burakovsky who had an empty net to shoot at.
Makar, who leads all rookies with 22 points, assisted on both Colorado goals in the second period.
With the Avalanche on the power play, Makar sent a cross-ice pass to MacKinnon, who fired a shot past Demko for his 12th at 7:51.
The Avs made it 3-1 with 8 1/2 minutes left in the period when Makar hit Kadri with a long pass after he got behind the Canucks’ defense. Kadri scored on a wrist shot to extend his points streak (two goals, four assists) to five games.
The Canucks cut the lead to one on Gaudette's second goal with just 2 seconds left in the period. Sven Baertschi took the puck off the boards and passed to Gaudette, who scored his fourth.
The Avalanche scored at 6:56 of the first when Bellemare deflected defenseman Erik Johnson's shot from the blue line past Demko.
Colorado had a chance to make it 2-0 just 45 seconds later but Demko used a left pad save to rob Joonas Donskoi on a rebound.
Gaudette tied it with 1:33 left in the opening period, just 20 seconds into a power play. Leivo drove behind the Colorado net, then tossed the puck out to Gaudette. With Bibeau glued to his post watching Leivo, Gaudette made no mistake into a gapping net.
NOTES
Colorado, which lost 6-2 in Edmonton Thursday, has been depleted by injuries. G Philipp Grubauer has missed four games with a lower-body injury and backup Pavel Francouz suffered a head injury 31 seconds into a win at Winnipeg on Tuesday. Also on the injured list are Tyson Jost (upper body), Mikko Rantanen (lower body), Gabriel Landeskog (lower body) and Colin Wilson (lower body).
Canucks coach Travis Green said C Jay Beagle, who missed his third game with a lower-body injury, could dress Tuesday when the Canucks play in Dallas.
Vancouver C Brandon Sutter missed his second game with a groin strain. ... The Canucks wore their retro black uniforms with the skate on the front of the jersey.
Colorado D Nikita Zaborov, returning to the lineup after missing three games with a broken jaw, earned an assist on the first goal.
Actor Hilary Swank was in the crowd and drew cheers when shown on the big screen wearing a Canucks toque.
UP NEXT
Avalanche: At Calgary on Tuesday night.
Canucks: At Dallas on Tuesday night to open a six-game trip.
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