MONTREAL — The Colorado Avalanche ran out of gas Saturday night, about 11 minutes from what would have been a fantastic road trip through eastern Canada.
The new guys salvaged it, anyway.
Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle scored in the shootout to help the Avs shake a late collapse and claim a 5-4 win Saturday night at Bell Centre. In the end, the Avs were a couple of fluky goals from a three-game sweep on the trip. This one wasn’t pretty by the end, but it was two points and keeps Colorado on a 10-1-1 run in its past 12 contests.
Colorado was cruising to the end of this road trip, but three Montreal goals in less than three minutes flipped this contest and reignited a raucous crowd. Joshua Roy and Juraj Slafkovsky scored 30 seconds apart to cut the Avs’ advantage to 4-3 with 10:06 still to play.
Lane Hutson hit the post and Cole Caufield nearly scored as the Habs surged, and then Christian Dvorak did tie the game with 6:28 remaining on a backhanded shot after a Colorado turnover.
Montreal clawed back to force overtime, but a Canadiens penalty gave the Avalanche ample opportunities to find a winner. Habs goalie Samuel Montembeault made eight saves in the extra five minutes to get Montreal to the shootout.
Sam Malinski put the Avs in front with his third goal of the season at 7:35 of the first. Ross Colton started the rush in his own end, entered the offensive zone and sent the puck to Joel Kiviranta in the right circle. Kiviranta dropped it to a trailing Malinski, and the defenseman hammered a one-timer past Montreal goalie Samuel Montembeault.
Colton had 15 points in 42 games for the season after a 3-1 loss in St. Louis on Feb. 23. He now has 12 points in the past 12 contests. Kiviranta also has one point in his seven of his past 11 games after having just 16 in the first 60.
Ryan Lindgren made it a two-goal lead fewer than three minutes later. Artturi Lehkonen got the puck out of a wall scrum into the slot, and then Brock Nelson made a great play to snag it and then feed Lindgren despite an oncoming defender for a 2-0 lead at 10:09.
The Habs had a 12-7 advantage in hits after one period, including several big ones. But Colorado had a 16-6 advantage in shots.
Martin Necas made it a 3-0 advantage on the power play at 5:24 of the second. Nathan MacKinnon tried to set up Valeri Nichushkin in the slot, but the Russian’s stick was lifted. The puck continued on to Jonathan Drouin on the right flank, and he quickly snapped a pass to Necas at the left post for a lay-up.
Just when it felt like the Avs were going to run away with this game, Slafkovsky got one back for the Canadiens. He tipped a shot past Mackenzie Blackwood just 27 seconds after Necas’ goal.
Nelson deflected a Devon Toews point shot 3:58 into the third period to restore Colorado’s three-goal advantage. It was a slow start on the stat sheet for Nelson after arriving from the New York Islanders ahead fo the trade deadline. He had just two points in his first six games with the club, and Avs coach moved him to MacKinnon’s wing against Toronto to try and spark him.
He went back to center for the rest of the trip, and the slow star is over. Nelson had two goals in the 5-1 win Thursday night at Ottawa and added a second straight multi-point game in Montreal.
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