Avs Defenseman Cale Makar & Forward Mikko Rantanen celebrate Makar's OT Game Winning Goal Wednesday vs. Boston (Photo: Michael Martin/Getty Images)
The Avalanche just keep finding ways to win, as Wednesday they trailed 3-1 in the 3rd period, but scored 3 straight, capped off by a Cale Makar game winner overtime, and beat the visiting Bruins, 4-3. It was Colorado's 8th straight win and continues to set the team's mark for most consecutive home wins, 17 and counting at Ball Arena.
Following Captain Gabe Landeskog's equalizer with 37 seconds in regulation, Makar was able to capitalize on a man-advantage to find the back of the net in OT. "They were overplaying kind of Mikko’s (Rantanen) flank there and I was looking over there the whole time to give him a [one timer] and then as I saw Landy had a great screen in front and the whole kind of right side of the net was open and I just decided to shoot it," Makar said. "Originally, I thought it went off the side of Landy, but he says it didn’t, so it was a great screen and that’s why we scored.”
Here was Landy's description of his goal that sent the game to overtime, "Yeah that was exciting," he said. "We were able to keep the puck in and I think Val (Nichushkin) slid it over to Naz (Kadri) and Naz faked the shot and he saw me coming out of the corner. Obviously, that’s a long movement for the goalie, so I was just trying to get the shot off quick.”
Colorado is 13-0-1 in January, matching the NHL record for wins in the month of January set by the Carolina Hurricanes (2006) and Washington Capitals (2010). The Avs’ 13 wins this month is a new franchise record for most wins in a single month, passing the previous record of 12 set by last year’s team in March 2021.
The Avalanche, now with 27 points this month, also set a new league record for points in the month of January, eclipsing the previous mark of 26 set by four teams, including the 2003-04 Avalanche club.
Head Coach Jared Bednar was asked how Nathan MacKinnon was feeling following a collision with Boston's Taylor Hall that sent MacKinnon off the ice in the 2nd period, "Not good enough to return to the game, so we'll see what tomorrow brings for him," Bednar said.
Despite his team finding a way to pull out a win against one of the best team's in hockey, Bednar knows his team still needs to play better, "the message has to be sent to our team and they have to understand it...it's mistakes...that cost you games...to me it's just we'll talk about it, and we just felt like we needed to send a message there...then we'll reset and get after it in Chicago."