Artturi Lehkonen sealed the win in the shootout and Cale Makar tallied a goal and an assist in regulation as the Colorado Avalanche rallied to edge the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Wednesday night at United Center.
With just 10.8 seconds left in regulation, Martin Necas deflected Makar’s point shot to tie the game at 2-2 while Colorado had an extra attacker on the ice. Goalie Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves for the Avalanche, who improved to 46-26-4 (96 points) and held firm in third place in the Central Division. They’re six points behind Dallas and seven points ahead of both Minnesota and St. Louis.
Nathan MacKinnon scored in the second round of the shootout, but Chicago’s Teuvo Teravainen kept it going with a goal of his own. Lehkonen then clinched the win by beating goalie Spencer Knight. Connor Murphy had a goal and an assist for Chicago, and Ilya Mikheyev added a goal. Knight stopped 29 shots in the loss.
Elsewhere in the league, Vincent Trocheck scored 24 seconds into overtime to lift the Rangers over the Minnesota Wild in a wild 5-4 finish at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers tied Montreal for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Artemi Panarin, Braden Schneider, K’Andre Miller, and Chris Kreider all scored for New York. Minnesota, now tied with idle St. Louis for the West’s first wild-card spot, got goals from Marco Rossi, Gustav Nyquist, Brock Faber, and Marcus Johansson.
In Raleigh, Alex Ovechkin scored his 892nd career goal—just three shy of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record—during a five-on-three power play in Washington’s 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes. Jackson Blake scored twice for Carolina, who have won 12 of their last 14 games and clinched a playoff spot with the win.
Also, the Toronto Maple Leafs edged the Florida Panthers 3-2.
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