McDavid breaks tie in 3rd, Oilers end Avalanche's winning streak at 5

DENVER -- Connor McDavid scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers ended the Colorado Avalanche's five-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory at Ball Arena on Tuesday.

McDavid scored a power-play goal to make it 4-3 at 9:03 of the third. He fed Leon Draisaitl a backhand pass, spun around Devon Toews, and finished the give-and-go with a snap shot to the far side.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, and Evan Bouchard and Draisaitl each had two assists for the Oilers (32-25-8), who have won two straight and three of four. Connor Ingram allowed two goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Tristan Jarry late in the second period following a collision with Nathan MacKinnon in his crease.

“It was concussion protocol. He's feeling well,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Obviously, that can change, but he was not allowed to come back just because of [the] concussion spotter."

Jarry made 11 saves in relief.

“It’s always tough to see someone go down and it’s never easy to watch that, but I think just having to be prepared and mentally strong right off the bat, that’s all you really can do in a moment like that,” Jarry said. “We were in a good spot when I came in, so you just want to try and keep that. You want to keep the guys the same way as if Connor was still playing. So, I think just being able to stay even-keeled in that moment and just kind of work away with what we had.”

Ross Colton, Martin Necas, and Valeri Nichushkin scored for the Avalanche (43-11-9). Mackenzie Blackwood made 20 saves.

“That wasn't a great night considering what we needed from our team against the Oilers,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “There’s some things that I really liked and some pushback that I liked from the team in the third period, but like for a full 60 minutes, it wasn't our best. But I can't single anybody out as like going through it right now. I think our guys are working hard."

Colton gave Colorado a 1-0 lead 32 seconds into the first period when his wrist shot from the point caromed off Darnell Nurse and past the glove of Ingram. Edmonton had cleared the puck out of the zone prior to the play, but Vasily Podkolzin inadvertently backhanded it back in straight to Nelson, who fed Colton for the play.

Nugent-Hopkins tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 8:13. He finished a give-and-go with McDavid over Blackwood's shoulder from in tight.

“We just we came with the mindset of playing everything tight, not giving the easy ones for them, and even after going down one, we did a pretty good job of just sticking to that and it started to pay off for us,” Nugent-Hopkins said.

Necas scored his own power-play goal to make it 2-1 at 15:41 when his wrist shot from the left dot deflected short side off the stick of Ty Emberson. MacKinnon’s initial shot got cleared out by Matt Savoie right to Necas, who shot through MacKinnon’s jumping screen.

Jack Roslovic tied it 2-2 at 19:35. He took a backhand feed from Draisaitl while skating backward into the low slot before turning and scoring with a wrist shot over Blackwood's glove. Brent Burns had attempted to clear the puck up the wall, but Draisaitl intercepted it and waited for Roslovic to get open.

“It was an exciting game. They came out flying," Knoblauch said. "They scored on the first shift, and we responded nicely a couple times. I think the goal at the end of the first period was huge with Roslovic scoring that.”

Nugent-Hopkins scored his second of the game to put the Oilers in front 3-2 at 4:15 of the second period. He couldn't handle a pass from Zach Hyman on a 2-on-1, but Nurse chased down the loose puck along the left boards and passed back toward the crease, where Nugent-Hopkins waited and redirected it into the net.

“There was lots of adversities tonight, and it would have been easy to kind of pack it in, and [we] did a great job just sticking to it and trusting each other,” Nugent-Hopkins said.

MacKinnon was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct at 19:25 of the second period after his collision with Ingram while driving to the net.

“Going [10] forwards for almost half the game is not easy, but it's the hand we were dealt,” Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri said. “We tried to come back. I thought we had a good push, but the end of the day, I think there's a lot of things we could clean up tonight.”

Nichushkin tied it 3-3 at 7:04 of the third. He fed Sam Malinski a pass at the right point, curled into the high slot, and redirected Malinski’s shot-pass far side past the blocker of Jarry.

“I thought everybody had legs tonight,” Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. “I thought we had, overall, good forechecks, and I think we struggled on the breakout a little bit early, and then we were able to figure it out. Again, I felt like we had some good chances, but just didn't finish sometimes.”

NOTES: Colton left the game at 11:20 of the second period with an upper-body injury. “He took a shot from a player during the game and then he kind of tightened up,” Bednar said. “So, he's got an upper-body injury, and hopefully he loosens up for tomorrow and can play in Seattle (on Thursday).” … Oilers forward Colton Dach left the game at 6:05 of the first period, and Emberson left the game at 16:51 of the first. There were no updates on either player. ... McDavid has 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) during an eight-game point streak.