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Canucks blow three goal lead, lose to Avalanche in overtime

Vancouver struggled on the penalty kill, as Colorado scored all five goals on the powerplay
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Canucks’ forwards Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi celebrate after Horvat scores his 16th goal of the season. (via @Canucks/Twitter)

Nathan MacKinnon scored a power-play goal 3:36 into overtime, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks in NHL action Tuesday at Rogers Arena.

MacKinnon added three assists to lead the Avs (31-23-4), who also got power-play markers from Tyson Jost, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Barrie.

Brent Sutter had a goal and an assist for the Canucks (23-30-6), who blew a three-goal lead. Darren Archibald, Nikolai Goldobin and Bo Horvat also scored for Vancouver.

Anders Nilsson made 29 saves in taking the loss, while Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots for the Avalanche, earning himself the victory.

The first period didn’t see much action. Colorado had eight shots on goal before Vancouver could record a shot.

Under a minute into the second period, Sutter made a one-handed pass from his knees to Darren Archibald in front of the net, and Archibald counted his first goal of the season (second of his career) to make it 1-0 Canucks.

The Avs responded on the power play at 9:14 of the second period with a tip in front of the net from Tyson Jost, his seventh of the season. Victoria native and ex-Kelowna Rocket Barrie was able to get a wrist shot through traffic from the blue-line, and it was tipped by Jost.

Just over two minutes later, Goldobin fired a wrist shot off of Varlamov’s glove and in for his third goal of the season.

Only 51 seconds after that, Goldobin forced a turnover from Avs defenceman Nikita Zadorov, and sent a pass to Sutter who snapped a wrist shot past the glove of Varlamov to make it 3-1 Canucks.

With 4:18 left in the second, Brock Boeser intercepted a pass behind the Colorado net and fired one in front to Horvat, who buried it to put the Canucks up by three.

At 2:03 of the second period, Rantanen recorded his 19th goal of the season on a power play, past the glove of Nilsson.

After a Canucks penalty, Colorado’s MacKinnon banked a shot off the stick of Landeskog to bring the Avs within one with 37 seconds left in the second period.

On another power play with three minutes left to play in the third period, Barrie slapped a one-timer from the top of the blue-line off the post and in to tie the game up at 4-4.

The game needed overtime, which saw MacKinnon score the winner from the left circle on a one-timer from Barrie to give the Avs the win.

The Canucks celebrated diversity and inclusion in hockey with Hockey Is For Everyone Night at Rogers Arena tonight. Players wore rainbow-coloured jerseys and matching Pride tape on their sticks during the pre-game warm-up.

Canucks are set to visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.

GAME NOTES:

Vancouver: Goalie Richard Bachman was recalled from the Utica Comets prior to the game, as Jacob Markstrom was ruled out with a minor injury… Horvat now has seven points in his last seven games… Boeser has nine points in the past 11 games… Boeser is now 13 points behind rookie scoring leader and Coquitlam’s Matthew Barzal.

Colorado: Victoria’s Barrie had a goal and four assists on the night… The Avs were 5-for-5 on the power play…Heading into the game the Avs had the worst road power-play percentage in the NHL.