Jonathan Drouin scores in OT, as Avalanche rally past Penguins 5-4 for 9th straight win

DENVER (AP) — Jonathan Drouin scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 on Sunday for their ninth straight win.

Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 18 games with a goal and two assists. MacKinnon has at least a point in 34 straight home games, second all-time behind Wayne Gretzky’s 40-game streak in 1988-89. Sean Walker and Yakov Trenin also scored for Colorado.

Drouin, who also had an assist, won it when he beat Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for his 14th goal of the season. Nedeljkovic, who had 21 saves, was replaced by Tristan Jarry at 5:17 of the third after a collision with Casey Mittelstadt. Jarry had four saves and allowed the tying goal.

Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists for his third four-point game, Bryan Rust, Jesse Puljujarvi and Pierre-Olivier Joseph also scored for the Penguins

Crosby assisted on Pittsburgh’s first two goals, stealing the puck from Mikko Rantanen and feeding Rust for a goal with 4:49 left of the first period that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead.

His 34th goal of the season, off a deflection at 13:47 of the second, was the first of two Pittsburgh goals in less than two minutes. Joseph made it 4-0 with his first of the season with 4:20 remaining.

Colorado rallied in the final four minutes of the second to cut it to 4-2. Walker scored 15 seconds after Joseph and Trenin's first goal as an Avalanche with 30 seconds left made it 4-2 going into the third period.

Drouin scored at 3:32 of the third on a pass from MacKinnon. He fed MacKinnon for the tying goal with 4:38 to go. It was MacKinnon’s 44th of the season and gave him 122 points on the season, the most in Avalanche history since the team relocated to Colorado in 1995.

Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves for the Avalanche.

UP NEXT:

Pittsburgh: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Colorado: Hosts the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl