Joel Armia scores late winner to lift Canadiens over Avalanche 4-3
MONTREAL (AP) — Joel Armia scored late in the third period and the Montreal Canadiens edged the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Monday night.
Cole Caufield had a goal and assist, Juraj Slafkovsky and Rafael Harvey-Pinard also scored and Nick Suzuki pitched in with two assists for Montreal. Jake Allen stopped 32 shots to snap a three-game Canadiens winless streak.
Cale Makar — with a goal and two assists — Devon Toews and Ross Colton scored for Colorado, which had won 12 of its last 15 games.
Nathan MacKinnon had one assist for Colorado to extend his point streak to eight games and increase his total to 70, two back of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the league lead.
Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves in Colorado’s net.
After Allen made a couple big saves off MacKinnon to keep the score 3-3, Armia battled for the loose puck in front of the net and buried an unassisted backhand goal with 4:10 left in the game.
The Avalanche pulled their goalie for a frantic couple minutes with the extra attacker, but couldn’t score a fourth past Allen.
Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, Caufield gave Montreal its first lead with his team-leading 13th of the season 1:52 into the third off a sharp-angle shot on the power play.
Colorado’s Toews tied it again at 9:37 with a one-timer during 4-on-4 play, with Mikko Rantanen extending his point streak to eight games with an assist on the goal.
Colton opened the scoring in the first period with a power-play goal at 4:28 after multiple whacks at the puck in front of the net. Former Hab Jonathan Drouin, in his first game against the Canadiens since joining the Avalanche, earned an assist on the goal.
Slafkovsky responded with his fifth of the season and first in 10 games by burying a rebound of his own on the Canadiens’ power play after a set up by captain Suzuki. The 19-year-old Slafkovsky registered five shots in the first 20 minutes.
Makar gave Colorado a 2-1 lead 1:01 into the second with a one-timer from the point that beat Allen blocker side for his 10th.
After Montreal fended off a 5-on-3 Colorado power play, Harvey-Pinard scored his first of the season, in his 16th game, by following up his own drive to the net and knocking the puck through Georgiev’s pads to tie the game with 3:52 left in the second period.
The Canadiens later announced that forward Jesse Ylonen, who took a dump in from teammate Jayden Struble off the back of his head with a minute left in the second, would not return.
Drouin received a loud round of applause and saluted the fans during a video tribute at the first commercial break of his Bell Centre return, but was otherwise jeered every time he touched the puck.
Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, the league and players’ union announced earlier Monday. Nichuskin will be out of the lineup until he’s cleared by program administrators.
UP NEXT
Avalanche: Visit the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
Canadiens: Open a three-game road trip Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL