Jonathan Drouin completed the craziest comeback of the Colorado Avalanche season, scoring 54 seconds into overtime Sunday afternoon.
Drouin’s goal was the fifth straight by the Avs after falling allowing the first four in a 5-4 victory. Nathan MacKinnon had three points, including an assist on the game winner.
MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 34 games when he set up Jonathan Drouin for a one-timer 3:32 in the third period. MacKinnon also matched Joe Sakic’s Denver-based season record at 120 points. The franchise record is 139, set by Peter Stastny in 1981-82 when the club was based in Quebec.
The goal also brought the Avs back to within 4-3 with plenty of runway left. MacKinnon set the new Denver-based record with 4:38 remaining in the third to get Colorado level. Drouin returned the favor with a cross-ice pass and MacKinnon’s one-timer became his 44th goal and 121st point of the season.
The Avs were OK at the start of the first period, but a bad power play begat Pittsburgh’s first goal and the rest of the opening 20 minutes was a stretch to forget for the home team. Jesse Puljujarvi came out of the penalty box and immediately created a scoring chance. Seconds later, Crosby backhanded a shot to the net and Puljujarvi banged home the rebound.
Crosby created a second Pittsburgh goal with an incredible backcheck on Mikko Rantanen when it appeared the Avs were able to embark on an odd-man rush. He took the puck off Rantanen and got it to Bryan Rust, who made a power move past Josh Manson and waited out Alexandar Georgiev to make it 2-0.
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Pittsburgh outshot Colorado 16-4 in the opening period. The Avs played a little better in the the first half of the second, but Crosby wasn’t done. He redirected a shot while dropping to one knee near the goal line to make it 3-0, and less than two minutes later set up Pierre-Oliver Joseph to make it a four-goal lead and a four-point day for the Penguins’ captain.
It was Crosby’s third four-point game of the season. He also has 73 points in 70 games, and is on pace to average at least a point per game for the 19th time in his career. That would tie Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history.
Colorado found some life on the next shift. Sean Walker snapped a shot through traffic 25 seconds after Joseph’s goal to give him nine this season, including three in seven games since arriving in a trade from Philadelphia.
Two of the other new guys teamed up to cut Pittsburgh’s lead in half. Walker hit the crossbar with a shot, then later in the shift Brandon Duhaime’s shot went off Yakov Trenin and in to make it a 4-2. It was going to be Duhaime’s first with the Avs, but it was credited to Trenin — and became his first with the team instead.
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