NHL Game Summary - Colorado at Arizona
Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Danny Briere picked up the deciding goal, coming with 1:44 remaining in overtime, which allowed Colorado to rally from an early three-goal deficit and claim a 4-3 victory over Arizona on Tuesday.
Briere had possession along the left-wing boards deep in the hosts' zone and attempted a cross-ice pass to Zach Redmond, but the puck instead deflected off the active stick of Martin Hanzal and slid past Mike Smith to end the contest.
Gabriel Landeskog added two goals and Matt Duchene tied the score for the Avalanche, the basement dwellers in the Central Division who have won four of their last five.
"We were resilient tonight," said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy. "I was very happy with our players tonight, the way we battled."
Calvin Pickard earned the win in relief, stopping all 25 shots over the game's final 52:23. Reto Berra started, but was pulled after allowing three goals on eight chances.
Antoine Vermette, Michael Stone and Tobias Rieder lit the lamp for the Coyotes, losers of two straight and six of nine. Smith made 30 saves in defeat.
"They're games that are winnable and we should be winning them," said Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett as his team dropped their fourth one-goal decision at home in the month of November.
Landeskog finally put the Avs on the board shy of the six-minute mark of the second period, and he stuffed home the rebound of a Nathan MacKinnon miss from atop the crease to pull Colorado to 3-2 with 1:36 gone in the third.
Duchene's scoring instinct took over on the game-tying marker. He tried to sneak a shot past Smith from behind the right post. The puck caromed into the air and somehow made it through Smith's equipment, long enough for Duchene to circle back and tap the disc over the goal line at the 4:05 mark.
Vermette beat Berra with a long shot through traffic with 3:36 played in the opening period, and the hosts went up 2-0 just after the midway point when Stone redirected a Keith Yandle shot.
Only 33 seconds later, Berra was chased when Rieder's long slapper from the left wing eluded his grasp.
"We ended up playing too much in our zone. We gave up too many chances around our net, and those pucks went in," said Stone.