Devon Toews scored 48 seconds into overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in Denver on Thursday night.
It was the second time this season Colorado overcame a big deficit to beat the Sabres. The Avalanche trailed 4-0 after one period in Buffalo on Dec. 3 and won 5-4, and Colorado was down 3-0 after one period and trailed 5-3 in the third on Thursday night.
Jonathan Drouin sent the game into overtime when he scored with 7.7 seconds left. Toews ended it when he got a breakaway and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to extend the Avalanche’s winning streak to six games.
Toews also had two assists, Cale Makar scored two goals, Mikko Rantanen and Drouin each had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton provided a goal and Nathan MacKinnon had three assists for Colorado. The Avalanche prevailed despite losing goaltender Scott Wedgewood to injury.
Wedgewood was hurt 1:27 into the third period when Zach Benson was battling with Colorado’s Parker Kelly near the net and fell into Wedgewood’s right leg. The goalie went down inside his net, play continued and Benson scored moments later to give Buffalo a 4-2 lead.
Wedgewood was helped off the ice after making 14 on 18 shots. He was replaced by Mackenzie Blackwood, who turned away two of the three shots he faced.
Jason Zucker recorded his third career hat trick and also added an assist, Benson and Bowen Byram also scored, Tage Thompson had three assists and Luukkonen made 23 saves for Buffalo.
Zucker scored twice and Byram had a goal to give the Sabres a 3-0 lead midway through the second period.
Makar’s goal at 14:58 of the second made it 3-1, and Colton cut it to 3-2 just 1:05 into the third, but Benson scored 22 seconds later to restore the two-goal margin.
Rantanen’s goal at 4:17 on a power play and made it 4-3 before Zucker netted his third goal at 16:09 to complete his first hat trick of the season.
Makar scored again at 17:34 with Blackwood off for an extra skater to make it 5-4. Blackwood came off again and Drouin tied it with a slap shot at 19:52.
–Field Level Media
