Nichushkin sparks Avalanche to shootout victory against Golden Knights

DENVER -- Valeri Nichushkin scored, then had the only goal in the shootout, helping the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Nichushkin won it in the fifth round with a wrist shot to the short side under the glove of Adin Hill.

“I really liked that game from us,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought [it was] hard finding ice to create scoring chances for both teams, and I thought both teams checked hard, skated hard. As the game went on, though, I thought we got more and more dangerous and spent more time in the attack zone, created more scoring chances, and it was good all-around hockey game.”

Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves for the Avalanche (13-10-0), who have won four of their past five games.

“You try not to get caught up in what happens in the other end too much. Just taking it five minutes at a time, make those saves,” Georgiev said. “Definitely pretty tight defensive game from both sides. You try to enjoy it as a goalie, for sure. I know our guys were battling, just trying to find the next goal and shut it down defensively. I think we did a great job of that defensively, just blocking a lot of shots and coming back a lot.”

Pavel Dorofeyev scored for the Golden Knights (14-6-3), who had won three straight and finished 3-1-1 on a five-game road trip. Hill made 33 saves, including 14 in the third period and three in overtime. He stopped Nichushkin on a point-blank one-timer during a power play with 7:26 left in the third, then was at the right post to make the save on his one-timer during a delayed penalty with 10 seconds left.

Hill then made a glove save on Josh Manson’s one-timer from the low slot with 1:40 remaining in overtime.

“We looked tired. We're at the end of a road trip, and we are tired,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Adin Hill played well, earned us a point.”

Dorofeyev gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 13:09 of the second period. He took a pass from Ivan Barbashev, skated through the left face-off circle and scored to the short side over the shoulder of Georgiev.

“I felt like I had a good game out there,” Hill said. [It stinks] to come away with a loss, but I think overall, we have to take the positives and got a point in a tough building. I thought overall it was a great [road] trip. I think we just kind of had one period in Toronto (3-0 loss on Nov. 20) and one period here where we didn't play the way we wanted, and that's the difference in this league, right? If you take a period off, that costs you points.”

Nichushkin tied it 1-1 at 13:42 of the second period when he one-timed a loose puck from the left hash marks over the leg of Hill.

NOTES: Georgiev got his 85th win with Colorado and passed Stephane Fiset for the sixth most in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … MacKinnon played in his 814th regular-season game, passing Michel Goulet (813) for the fourth most in Avalanche/Nordiques history (Joe Sakic, 1,378; Milan Hejduk, 1,020; Adam Foote, 967). … Avalanche forward Chase Bradley played 7:02 in his NHL debut. … Barbashev extended his point streak to four games (two goals, six assists). … Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury. He had an assist and one shot on goal in 25:40 of ice time.