Rantanen’s OT goal lifts Avalanche past Oilers 6-5
By Michael Kelly, The Associated Press on February 19, 2023.
DENVER (AP) – Mikko Rantanen scored with 21 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 on Sunday. J.T. Compher had a goal and three assists, Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist and Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin and Logan O’Connor added goals for Colorado, which won its third straight. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 35 shots. The Avalanche were playing for the second consecutive day; they won at St. Louis 4-1 on Saturday afternoon. “It was ugly game, on our side of it anyway,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a bunch of guys that looked really tired and mentally tired.” After the Oilers iced the puck to set up a faceoff in their zone, Rantanen made them pay with his 36th goal of the season. Edmonton lost its third straight game after regulation and its fourth in a row overall. The Oilers, who haven’t won in Denver since Dec. 11, 2018, have blown three-goal leads in consecutive games and have dropped six straight to the Avalanche. “Normally I’d like dress it up and say it’s good to get a point but I’ve got to say that that was utterly disappointing for us,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. Warren Foegele scored twice, Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist and Tyson Barrie and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers. Jack Campbell had 36 saves. “We score enough goals and the mentality has to be to defend,” Foegele said. “It’s just having the right mindset. We’re up three so we got to take shorter shifts and stay above guys, and for some reason we’re just not doing that.” The Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second period on two goals by Foegele and Draisaitl’s 33rd of the season. Colorado got goals 4:14 apart from MacKinnon and Nichushkin to make it 3-2, but Barrie’s goal late in the period made it 4-2 heading into the third. MacKinnon scored his second of the game and 20th of the season 26 seconds into the third period. Janmark answered at 3:58 to make it 5-3, and O’Connor made it a one-goal game at 9:30. Lehkonen’s tip at 15:48 completed the comeback and sent it to overtime. “It’s easy to nitpick every single night, we play so many games we’re going to have off periods sometimes,” MacKinnon said. “Lately it’s been really good in the third.” TRADING PLACES Colorado swapped defencemen for Sunday’s game, with Josh Manson in and Cale Makar out. Manson didn’t make the trip to St. Louis on Saturday – a planned day off after he missed 31 games with an lower-body injury – and Makar was out Sunday after taking a hit to the head in the win over the Blues. Makar missed three games in early February after he took a hit in the head from Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter. KANE OUT Edmonton scratched left-winger Evander Kane (upper-body injury) and recalled Devin Shore from Bakersfield of the AHL. Kane’s injury is considered day to day. The Oilers played with 11 forwards. JOHNSON UPDATE Bednar confirmed that defenceman Erik Johnson suffered a broken ankle and will be out for an extended time. Johnson hasn’t played since Feb. 11 with what the team classified as a lower-body injury but multiple reports Sunday said Johnson has a broken ankle. “I don’t have a tight timeline on him, but he’s out indefinitely,” Bednar said. UP NEXT Oilers: Host Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Avalanche: At Winnipeg on Friday night. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 26-25
