Samuel Girard scored 2:47 into overtime, giving the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators in Denver on Monday night.
The play started when Nashville defenseman Brady Skeji had the puck just inside the Colorado zone but lost his footing. Girard quickly took the puck, skated ahead of Skeji, and fired it past goalie Juuse Saros over his blocker to secure the win. It was Girard’s first goal of the season, and he also had an assist in the game.
Mikko Rantanen and Devon Toews also scored for the Avalanche, while Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves. Colorado has now won two games in a row.
Luke Evangelista and Colton Sissons scored for the Predators, and Saros stopped 29 shots in the loss.
Georgiev gave up an early goal for the second game in a row but was solid after that, keeping Nashville off the board for the next two periods. The Predators’ goal came just 1:45 into the game during a delayed penalty.
Juuso Parssinen took a shot from the point that Georgiev stopped, but Evangelista grabbed the rebound and scored for his second goal of the season.
The score remained 1-0 until the second period. Just four seconds after Nashville killed off a penalty to Zachary L’Heureux, Toews fired a shot from the point that deflected off a Predators stick and went past Saros at 4:32. It was Toews’ first goal of the season.
Colorado took the lead halfway through the second period when Joel Kiviranta passed the puck to Rantanen in the right circle. Rantanen’s one-timer beat Saros on the short side at 11:37. That was Rantanen’s ninth goal of the season and his second straight game with a goal.
Nashville tied it up early in the third period. Roman Josi stole the puck at the Colorado blue line, skated into the zone, and passed it to Sissons at the side of the net. Sissons slid the puck into the open net at 59 seconds to make it 2-2.
