Rantanen, Avalanche defeat Golden Knights in OT in Game 2, extend lead

DENVER -- Mikko Rantanen scored a power-play goal at 2:07 of overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche extended their lead in the Stanley Cup Second Round with a 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 2 at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Rantanen took a cross-ice pass from Nathan MacKinnon and scored with a shot from the right face-off dot.
Colorado went on the power play 44 seconds into overtime after Vegas forward Reilly Smith was called for slashing Rantanen's stick out of his hands.
"It's all over the League that if you slash the other guy's stick out of his hands or break his stick, it's always a penalty," Rantanen said. "I'm a pretty strong guy too, so I can hold on to my stick, but that was a pretty hard slash. I don't think I would purposely drop my stick in the [defensive zone]."
Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer didn't like the penalty.
"Ah, just a soft call, but I can't even blame the refs," DeBoer said. "They're fighting through the embellishment of grabbing your face or falling down or dropping your stick every period. So, you know, I can't even blame the referee on it. They fooled them on it."
Brandon Saad and Tyson Jost scored, Samuel Girard had two assists, and Philipp Grubauer made 39 saves for the Avalanche, the No. 1 seed in the Honda West Division, who won 7-1 in Game 1 on Sunday.
"'Grubi' bailed us out today," Rantanen said. "He had a really, really good game. He kept us in the game. He is basically the reason why we got to OT, and our special teams stepped up there, but Grubi was awesome for sure, First Star of the game."
Alec Martinez and Smith scored, Shea Theodore had two assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves for the Golden Knights, the No. 2 seed.
"It's not easy to take when you lose in the playoffs," DeBoer said. "I thought we deserved better. I really liked a lot of the things we did and our effort but got to find a way to bury one of those chances and win a game. They held serve at home; we've got to do the same."

Teams that take a 2-0 lead are 334-51 (.867) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoffs series, including 4-0 in the first round this season.
Game 3 is at Vegas on Friday.
Colorado has won six straight games to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs after sweeping the St. Louis Blues in the first round.
Saad gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 3:39 of the first period, skating down the slot and shooting five-hole after a breakout pass from Girard. Saad has scored a goal in five straight games.
"[Girard] made a great pass up the middle where their [defenseman] got caught pinching, and I had some space on the way to the net," Saad said. "It was a great heads-up play by him.
"We knew they were going to come out with a better effort tonight. Even though we didn't play our best, it's a great character win to kind of hold on and finish it off with the power play."

Martinez tied the game 1-1 at 9:32 with a one-timer short side from the right face-off circle after a pass from Max Pacioretty.
Jost made it 2-1 at 17:08 with a shot from above the left hash marks on a power play.
Smith tied it 2-2 at 10:28 of the second period. Jonathan Marchessault sent Smith down the slot for a high backhand glove side.
"I thought we played really well," Vegas captain Mark Stone said. "We didn't have a great start to the game but really kind of took over the game as it went on. I thought we kind of worried about our game a little bit more than we worried about them. We just came out and played really solid, but it stings no matter what.

"The good news is we lost two here, and now we go home to 18,000 fans and take care of home ice and come back here for Game 5 tied up."
The Golden Knights outshot the Avalanche 15-6 in the third period and 40-23 through the third period.
"It doesn't matter if I face 40, 50 or 10 shots," Grubauer said. "The approach is always the same, I never change anything. Obviously, the games are a little bit tougher if you get less shots and you get a little bit into the groove if you get a little bit more, so it was really good today. I got a little bit more than usual, but we got the win."
Fleury said he believes the Golden Knights can recover playing the next two games at home.
"I'm sure a lot of guys on our team have been there, I know I've been there, down 2-0," Fleury said. "But it doesn't matter if we keep playing the way we did tonight, we all have confidence in our team that we can come back in the series."
NOTES: The Avalanche are the third Presidents' Trophy winner (awarded since 1985-86 to NHL team with best record) with a winning streak of at least six games to begin a postseason; the 1993-94 New York Rangers (seven wins) and 1998-99 Dallas Stars (six) went on to win the Stanley Cup. ... The 1993-94 Rangers, 1988-89 Montreal Canadiens and 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins each won their first seven playoff games, tied for the longest streak to begin a postseason since 1986-87, when the NHL made all four rounds best-of-7. … Colorado has won 13 straight games at home and is 20-0-1 in the past 21, including four wins in the playoffs. ... Grubauer became the 10th goalie in NHL history to win at least 10 straight decisions in the postseason. … Rantanen has three goals and seven assists during a six-game point streak. He has a 16-game point streak in the playoffs dating to last season. … Golden Knights forward Dylan Sikura made his NHL playoff debut, replacing Mattias Janmark, who sustained an upper-body injury on a hit by Colorado defenseman Ryan Graves in the second period of Game 1. … Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar replaced Ryan Reaves, who served the first of a two-game suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct against Graves in the third period of Game 1. … Rookie
Logan Thompson
backed up Fleury, who started after Robin Lehner allowed seven goals on 37 shots in Game 1 in his 2021 playoff debut.