Toews OT goal caps comeback, Avalanche edge Sabres

DENVER -- Jonathan Drouin tied the game late in the third period, and Devon Toews scored on a breakaway in overtime to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 6-5 win against the Buffalo Sabres.

The Avalanche scored twice in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime. With Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood pulled for the extra skater, Cale Makar scored on a one-timer from inside the blue line to cut the Buffalo lead to 5-4 at 17:34.

“It feels really good. Obviously, the best part was probably [that] the crowd was electric. It was loud. Felt like a playoff game in the third period when we started racking up goals,” Mikko Rantanen said. “There's no quit in this group, that's for sure.”

Drouin tied it 5-5 at 19:52, firing a one-timer far side from just inside the left circle, again with Blackwood pulled for the extra skater.

“It was obviously a big goal by Cale to get us to one goal,” said Rantanen. “Way to finish from Cale and 'Drou' to shoot those in the net.”

Toews scored 48 seconds into overtime, forcing the puck from Tage Thompson to spring himself on a breakaway for the 6-5 final.

“We got to be better from the get go, but good resiliency from the guys stepping up,” said Toews. “We need everyone. We're a family in here. We're a community. We pick each other up when one guy gets down, and tonight (starting goaltender Scott Wedgewood) went down, and we're able to pick him up and it takes everyone.”

Makar scored two goals, and Toews had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche (24-15-0), who have won six straight and 10 of their past 12. Nathan MacKinnon had three assists, and Rantanen and Drouin each had a goal and an assist.

Wedgewood allowed four goals on 18 shots before leaving the game due to an injury. Blackwood made two saves in relief after entering the game 1:27 into the third period.

“It felt great because our guys dug in, and they got the win. We needed that win, and we wanted that win,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Everyone on the team's pissed off and then they dig in extra hard and make it happen. I was glad to see them get rewarded. It looks good on our guys. I thought it was an unbelievable effort, especially down the stretch.”

Jason Zucker had three goals and an assist, and Thompson had three assists for the Sabres (14-20-5), who have lost two straight after winning three in a row. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves.

“You play a game like that, nine or 10 times you're going to win a hockey game. We played a hell of a game,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We battled hard. They score. We come back and score. They score. We come back again. Zucker with the fifth.

“You play winning hockey the whole game, just a little bit of composure at the end is all you needed.”

Zucker scored a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Buffalo at 13:17 of the first period when he one-timed Jack Quinn’s centering pass past the leg of Wedgewood at the right post.

Bowen Byram extended the lead to 2-0 when he finished a 2-on-1 with Zucker by going forehand-backhand while cutting across the crease and putting the puck past the toes of Wedgewood at 17:10.

“Felt great. Whenever you can contribute to helping your team win, it's a great feeling, but obviously the ending of the game kind of overshadows that,” Byram said. “Thought we played hard and competed hard, but at the end of the day, they scored more goals than us.”

Colorado appeared to have cut the lead to 2-1 at 15:04 of the second period when MacKinnon’s centering pass into the slot caromed off the skate of Byram and the stick of Luukonen. Buffalo challenged the play and video review overturned the goal due to the zone entry having been offside.

Zucker made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 11:08 of the second period. He posted up at the top of the crease and redirected Thompson’s centering pass under the blocker.

“The guys made great plays for me. I'm just trying to stay around the net. I try to be around there as much as I can and try to draw a defenseman to me or make them make decisions,” said Zucker. “And I thought every play -- 'Tommer' made two, 'Quinny' made one -- were just unbelievable passes.”

Makar cut the lead to 3-1 when he walked in from the blue line and fired a shot from the right circle that went bar-down short side at 14:58 of the second.

Ross Colton scored to make it 3-2 when he tucked the rebound from Samuel Girard’s initial shot under the arm of Luukkonen at 1:05 of the third period.

Benson scored to extend Buffalo's lead to 4-2 just 22 seconds later. He was knocked on top of Wedgewood’s right leg, got up, located the puck behind the net, and took it around and scored while Wedgewood was down in the crease. The officials ruled that contact was initiated by the Avalanche. Wedgewood left the game injured.

"I just go into the net and he hit me on top of his goalie, and I just kept playing and eventually just wrapped it in,” Benson said. “Obviously, I had no intent at all to crash into him. I got hit on top of him, and I'm going to play to the whistle.”

Colorado challenged the play for goaltender interference but the goal was upheld following video review.

“It gives them another chance to do the right thing. The goal shouldn't have counted, and so, yeah, I was mad, so we just [challenged] it,” said Bednar. “Did I think it was goalie interference? No, it's not goalie interference because we bumped him in. He turned the wrong way, and we bumped into him and he went into our goalie. But when the goalie's hurt, you blow the whistle.”

Rantanen made it 4-3 with a one-timer from above the right dot at 4:17 of the period while on the power play.

Zucker completed the hat trick, hammering home his own rebound, to make it 5-3 at 16:09.

“We just weren't detailed enough in our 6-on-5, and it cost us tonight,” said Zucker. “I liked that we stayed in it. Obviously, just because you have a 3-0 lead doesn't mean that it's going to turn into 8-0 every game, or whatever it is. So we knew they were going to have a push. They had a 5-on-3, they got a couple goals. They're a great team.”

NOTES: MacKinnon (14 goals, 50 assists in 39 games) became the third player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history with seven 50-assist seasons, along with Joe Sakic (14) and Peter Stastny (nine). He became the fastest player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to 50 assists in a season. MacKinnon leads the NHL in both points (64) and assists (50). … Rantanen extended his point streak to 12 games (seven goals, 14 assists) and became the fifth Finland-born player in NHL history to have multiple 12-game point streaks, after Teemu Selanne (five), Jari Kurri (three), Sebastian Aho, and Mikael Granlund.