Avalanche score four in third before withstanding late Islanders rally

ELMONT, N.Y. -- The Colorado Avalanche scored four goals in a 4:21 span in the third period before withstanding a late rally from the New York Islanders for a 5-4 win at UBS Arena on Monday.

"Going into the third, we felt like we had the momentum," Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. "We were working hard and forechecking and the forwards were getting pucks low to high, and we were just trying to get pucks to the net. It just started clicking for us there. We got a couple really good face-off wins and we were able to put it in the back of the net."
Makar had two goals and an assist to extend his point streak to 12 games, and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche (41-11-5), who had lost two in a row (0-1-1). Pavel Francouz made 32 saves.
MacKinnon (nine) and Makar (eight) combined for 17 shots on goal.
"I thought those guys led the way for sure," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "We were talking this morning about how Cale hadn't scored in a while, but both of those guys, not just their shots, but just real good awareness. If they had a shot, they took it. They were dangerous on the interior of the ice, and if they didn't like it, they were dishing it off to someone else who was putting themselves in a scoring position. … They were real dangerous tonight."

Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves, and Anders Lee had two goals and an assist for the Islanders (21-24-8), who are 1-2-0 on a six-game homestand.
"Without our goaltender, it could have been ugly," New York coach Barry Trotz said. "It was ugly for a while. I thought 'Varly' was the best player on the ice for both teams."
Lee gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 9:01 of the first period when he redirected a pass from Noah Dobson on the power play.
Makar tied it 1-1 at 14:18 with his first goal since Jan. 28 (15 games), a wrist shot near the edge of the left face-off circle that went in off the right post on the power play.
Varlamov made 19 saves in the first, including against Nazem Kadri on a breakaway at 10:02. He then made a number of key saves in the second period to keep it tied, none better than at 5:14 when he reached back with the paddle of his stick to deny Makar a wide-open net.
"I thought Varly was really good in goal," Bednar said. "At the start of the second, we had a handful of chances and we created most of them with our 'D' in the slot area coming down the inside of the ice, and we missed the net on a bunch of those.
"Varly also made the big saves, and we find ourselves being in a real close game at the start of the third."

MacKinnon put the Avalanche in front 2-1 at 4:06 of the third period. Shortly after Varlamov stopped a point-blank one-timer from Mikko Rantanen, MacKinnon scored with his own one-timer from the right circle.
J.T. Compher then gave Colorado a 3-1 lead at 6:34.
Makar scored his 20th of the season to extend the lead to 4-1 at 7:41, shooting into an open net off a backdoor feed from MacKinnon, and Devon Toews skated in all alone behind Anthony Beauvillier to push it to 5-1 at 8:27.
"I loved our game from the drop of the puck until the 5-1 lead, it's that simple," Bednar said. "I thought we were doing a great job getting back above pucks, 'D' gaps were great, turning pucks in transition quickly the whole night, dangerous on the offensive side of things.
"They made a strong push following our push at the start of the third, so it ends up closer than what we would have liked for sure, but lots of positives to take out of that game for me."
Lee's second power-play goal of the game made it 5-2 at 11:58.
Casey Cizikas scored 1:30 later to cut it to 5-3, and Brock Nelson scored with 27 seconds left and Varlamov pulled for the extra skater for the 5-4 final.
"Varly gave us every chance to win that game tonight," Cizikas said. "He played unbelievable. He made some incredible saves and we let him down. We let him down big time."
NOTES: Makar has 19 points (two goals, 17 assists) during his point streak. He also has an assist in 12 straight games, tying Joe Sakic for the Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record. … Colorado has not lost three in a row since Oct. 16-21. … With two assists, Kadri has 23 multipoint games this season, trailing Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers (28) and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (25) for the most in the NHL. … Lee returned after missing a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday for personal reasons. It was his first three-point game since Feb. 23, 2020. … New York center Mathew Barzal (lower body) and defenseman Zdeno Chara (upper body) each missed his fifth straight game.