EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Artturi Lehkonen scored with half a second remaining in overtime and the Colorado Avalanche battled their way to their sixth straight win, 3-2 over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
Nathan MacKinnon sent the puck across to a hard-charging Lehkonen, who scored his 12th of the season. With the assist, MacKinnon extended his points streak to 15 games.
Sean Walker had both goals in regulation for the Avalanche and Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves.
“I think it was just a team win,” Walker said. “Obviously, it’s getting down to it at the end of the year here. Got to ramp it up, this is the time of year where we’re going into playoffs, so every game is going to be like that coming soon.”
Warren Foegele and Sam Carrick scored for the Oilers, who had won two in a row. Connor McDavid was held without a point, ending his home points scoring streak at 26 games. Stuart Skinner stopped 40 shots.
“I think both teams brought it, it was a really good game. There were a lot of chances both ways. It definitely felt like a playoff game,” Skinner said. “Obviously it is tough losing, especially with 0.5 seconds left. But that is hockey.”
The Avalanche had an opportunity 4:13 into the second period when Jonathan Drouin was slashed from behind by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a breakaway. Drouin was awarded a penalty shot but was stopped by Skinner.
Colorado broke the deadlock midway through the second as a turnover led to Walker getting a clear lane to beat Skinner for his first as a member of the Avalanche.
It appeared that Edmonton had tied it two minutes into the third, but a video review determined that Zach Hyman had kicked the puck into the net.
Edmonton tied the game 5:46 into the third when Foegele tipped Evan Bouchard's shot past Georgiev.
The Oilers went up by a goal with 8:12 to play in the third when trade deadline acquisition Carrick won a battle for the puck in front and scored his first as an Oiler. Corey Perry picked up an assist for his 900th career point.
Colorado tied the game 2-2 with 5:20 left to play when Casey Mittelstadt made a feed from behind the net to Walker.
“(It was) a well-played hockey game by two really good teams, I think,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "The third was really interesting because they came back and took the lead and we were able to tie it, which was good, and grabbing points out of this building in the middle of a long road trip is encouraging for our team.”
Three Colorado players returned to action after short stints out. They were Zach Parise (who missed three games with a lower-body injury), Lehkonen (absent two games with an illness) and Drouin (missed one game with a lower-body injury).
MacKinnon is just the fourth player in NHL history to have three points streaks of 14 or more games in a single season. The others are Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne and McDavid.
UP NEXT
Avalanche: At St. Louis on Tuesday night to finish a four-game trip.
Oilers: Host Montreal on Tuesday night in the third of a four-game homestand.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
The Associated Press
