Avalanche recover to defeat Canadiens in shootout

MONTREAL -- The Colorado Avalanche blew a three-goal lead in the third period before recovering for a 5-4 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Brock Nelson scored his third goal in two games and had an assist, then scored the deciding goal on Sam Montembeault in the fourth round of the shootout.

“I was getting ready to go with (Jonathan) Drouin and Drouin told me to go with Nelson, that his move would beat [Montembeault],” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “So the players often know a little bit more than us from watching each other after practices, before practice, from conversations. So ‘Drou’ actually made the call on that one.”

Mackenzie Blackwood made 25 saves for Colorado (43-25-3), which has won 10 of its past 12 (10-1-1) and is third in the Central Division, four points ahead of the fourth-place Minnesota Wild and three points behind the second-place Dallas Stars.

“You go up 4-1 and I don’t think you can sit back,” Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. “We know that there’s three-quarters of a period at that time left and it’s a weird one. I think you mentally check out for that half second and that’s when they get that opportunity, and it kind of compounds, and compounds. That’s a huge learning game for us and I’m glad that it happened now rather than later.”

Juraj Slafkovsky scored two goals for Montreal (33-27-9), including one of its three in the third, when Joshua Roy and Christian Dvorak also scored. Montembeault made 33 saves.

The Canadiens are 3-0-3 in their past six games.

“We always believe, we always want to play hard,” Slafkovsky said. “We don’t want to give anyone anything for free and that’s what we showed today.

The Canadiens, who are 8-1-4 in their past 13 games, are one point ahead of the New York Rangers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“It’s easy to roll over, and that’s just not what we do on our team,” Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said. “The guys just kept battling, getting chances. We really took over the game and we could have probably got a few more in the third. So it’s a big point.”

The Canadiens trailed by three midway through the third before Roy cut it to 4-2 at 9:24 by putting away the rebound of Alex Newhook’s shot.

Slafkovsky drew Montreal within 4-3 at 9:54 with a wrist shot past Blackwood from the top of the slot, and Dvorak tied it 4-4 at 13:32 on a backhand past Blackwood to glove side.

“He shows it to us at practice when you guys don’t have your cameras on,” Slafkovsky said of Dvorak’s backhand.

The Canadiens killed a penalty in overtime after Slafkovsky was called for holding at 2:35.

“I made a mistake and they saved me,” Slafkovsky said. “Obviously I wasn’t breathing in the box and they did a great job, and I had to make sure that I come to each one of them and thank them for saving me because you don’t want to lose like that, a stupid penalty in overtime. They did a great job and I just had to tell them how good they were out there.”

Sam Malinski put Colorado up 1-0 at 7:35 of the first period. He one-timed a slap shot to the stick side from above the right face-off circle off a back pass from Joel Kiviranta.

Ryan Lindgren made it 2-0 at 10:09 with a wrist shot to the glove side from the inside edge of the left circle off a backhand feed from Nelson.

Martin Necas pushed it to 3-0 with a power-play goal at 5:24 of the second period. He was on the left post to slam in a feed across the goalmouth by Drouin.

Slafkovsky cut it to 3-1 at 5:51 when he deflected Jayden Struble’s wrist shot from the point over Blackwood’s right shoulder.

Nelson put the Avalanche up 4-1 at 3:58 of the third. He won a face-off and drew the puck back to Devon Toews at the left point before tipping the defenseman’s shot past Montembeault.

“I was trying to get Marty (Necas) to walk up the wall,” Nelson said. “I think I just won it a little too inside and then a great job from ‘Tazer’ to hesitate a little bit and find a lane towards the net, and I was able to get my stick on it.”

NOTES: Nelson and Toews played 116 regular-season games together with the New York Islanders from 2018-20. The last time the two combined for a goal was Feb. 25, 2020. … The Canadiens have points in six consecutive games for the third time this season. Montreal went 5-0-1 from Jan. 4-16 and again from Feb. 22 to March 6. … Montembeault has lost consecutive starts but is 7-0-3 in his past 10.