DENVER — Nathan MacKinnon’s shootout goal lifted Colorado over the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Friday night and the Avalanche tightened their grip on the second Western Conference wild-card berth.
MacKinnon and Derick Brassard also had power-play goals in regulation for Colorado, which extended its lead over Arizona to three points in the race for the wild-card berth. Both teams have four games remaining.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson had both goals for the Coyotes, including the tying goal with 51 seconds remaining in regulation. Neither team could score in the extra period, leading to the shootout.
The Avalanche also got 42 saves from Philipp Grubauer, who also stopped all three shots by Arizona in the shootout.
The Avalanche have won six of their last seven games, including the past four at home.
Trailing 2-0, Arizona got on the board with eight minutes remaining when Ekman-Larsson scored on a slap shot from the left point that beat Grubauer. The Coyotes tied it with 51 seconds remaining in regulation on Ekman-Larsson’s second goal of the night, a wrist shot from inside the left circle.
The teams battled through a scoreless first period before the Avalanche broke through for a score while on the power play at 13:37 of the second. Gabriel Landeskog, playing for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury in early March, shot a pass across the crease to MacKinnon, who knocked the puck past Darcy Kuemper, squeezing it under the goalie’s stick.
It was the fourth game in a row in which the Avalanche scored a power-play goal.
Colorado made it 2-0 with 4 seconds left in the second period on another power-play score. Kuemper rebuffed a series of shots by the Avalanche, but Brassard got hold of a loose puck between the circles and fired it back into the net for his 14th goal of the season.
NOTES: Landeskog missed the previous nine games after suffering a shoulder separation March 7 at Dallas. … The seven straight starts by Grubauer are a career high. … It was Ekman-Larsson’s ninth career multi-goal game and his first of the season.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: Return home to host Minnesota on Sunday.
Avalanche: Visit St. Louis on Monday night.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Dennis Georgatos, The Associated Press
