Necas ties it late, Avalanche rally for shootout win against Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Martin Necas scored the tying goal with 11 seconds left in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who rallied for a 3-2 shootout win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Wednesday.

Necas tied it 2-2 with a tip-in of Cale Makar's point shot with Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood pulled for the extra skater. Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen then scored in the shootout to win it.

“It was good to see our guys get rewarded for some of their hard work here,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t think we’ve been playing great hockey these last handful of games, but it hasn’t been all bad, either. I thought we generated a lot of really good scoring chances tonight, didn’t manage the puck that well at times. Being able to kind of dig in, in the third period, and finally capitalize on a couple of chances and come away with the two points is encouraging.”

Makar had a goal and an assist, and MacKinnon had an assist for the Avalanche (46-26-4), who had lost two in a row after winning 12 of their previous 14. Wedgewood made 22 saves.

“He made some really good stops because we were giving up some really high-end opportunities,” Makar said of Wedgewood. “It’s going to happen like that sometimes. Our legs started a little bit slow tonight, a little disorganized. We were able to figure it out in the second, and ‘Wedge’ kind of held us in there up until then. Obviously in the third made some huge saves, as well.”

Colorado extended its lead for third place in the Central Division to seven points over the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. Each team has six games remaining. The Avalanche also pulled to within six points of the Dallas Stars for second. Dallas has two games in hand.

Connor Murphy had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Mikheyev scored a short-handed goal for the Blackhawks (21-44-10), who have lost four in a row. Spencer Knight made 29 saves.

“They come at you in waves there,” Chicago interim coach Anders Sorensen said. "I thought overall we did a good job. “Obviously lots of power play there where they created a bunch of chances, got some momentum. But you look at overall, I think we did a pretty good job of keeping them at bay, for sure.”

Mikheyev gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead on the penalty kill at 14:39 of the first period. Mikheyev moved into the offensive zone on the right wing, skated in and scored on a backhand-to-forehand move. It was his third short-handed goal of the season.

Murphy extended it to 2-0 at 8:17 of the second period, scoring from the right face-off circle after taking a pass from Connor Bedard, who was below the goal line.

“I just want to grow,” Murphy said. “I've taken over the last few years that no matter what time of the year or what's going on with the place that we're in, you have to try to grow your game and try to play hard and know that each night like tonight was a full crowd for an 8:50 (p.m.) puck drop in Chicago on a Wednesday night. A lot of people are still cheering us on that we're still trying to play hard for. We feel bad, all the losses that we're giving them, but for each guy personally, I want to give my best to them.”

Makar cut it to 2-1 at 9:17 of the third period. He took a pass from MacKinnon in the right circle and put a shot past the glove of Knight, setting a new career high with his 29th goal of the season.

“I didn’t even really realize,” Makar said. "Onward, upward -- hopefully.”

Necas left the game briefly at 7:44 of the third when he fell face forward into the back of Chicago’s Frank Nazar. He returned soon after that before scoring the tying goal.

“A little scary, especially when you see the video,” Bednar said. “His head kind of snaps back, and his neck snaps back. He was good enough to come back out. So that’s a positive sign. He’s moving around pretty well. I’m worried that he might be stiff and sore tomorrow, and could be a question mark (for Thursday’s game at the Columbus Blue Jackets). We’ll see what the night brings and how he presents in the morning.”

NOTES: Colorado forward Jonathan Drouin left the game after playing 6:16 in the first period and did not return because of a lower-body injury. Bednar said Drouin will “go get evaluated.” … The Avalanche recalled goalie Kevin Mandolese from Colorado of the American Hockey League. He dressed as Wedgewood’s backup. ... Makar needs one goal to become the ninth defenseman in NHL history with at least 30 in a season. He would join Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Denis Potvin, Mike Green, Kevin Hatcher, Ray Bourque, Phil Housley and Doug Wilson. ... Bedard recorded his 39th assist of the season and can become the third teenager in Blackhawks history with 40 assists in a season. The others: Patrick Kane (51 in 2007-08) and Eddie Olczyk (50 in 1985-86).