The Colorado Avalanche dug deep, fueled by some officiating-driven anger, and authored a wild, remarkable comeback two nights ago in an electric evening at Ball Arena.

This was not that.

The Montreal Canadiens ended Colorado’s six-game winning streak with a 2-1 shootout victory Saturday at Ball Arena. Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach scored for the Canadiens in the shootout.

There are some 2-1 thrillers, with great saves, end-to-end action and high drama.

This was not that.

“We were just OK,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We were good defensively, responsible, checked hard against a team that’s tops in the league right now in creating offense. But we didn’t do a good enough job creating offense ourselves.”

Maybe there was a letdown after the crazy 6-5 comeback win Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres, but this contest felt like it was played at a slower pace at times. The Avs jumped out to an early lead and played well enough for the first 40 minutes, but also looked far from a crisp, surging outfit that has collected so many positive results in the past month.

At one point, the Avalanche had just seven shots on net across more than 35 minutes of play. The Avs created more scoring opportunities than Montreal, but also missed the net on several of their best looks.

Colorado had scored at least four goals in each of the six games during the winning streak.

“We had a lot of zone time. We just didn’t create a lot of chances,” Bednar said. “Not enough of a shot mentality. That attack mentality just wasn’t there. Seemed like we were really selective on the shots we wanted to take.”

Montreal was playing the second half of a back-to-back and started rookie Jakub Dobes in net. Dobes, 23, was making his second career NHL start and stopped 22 of 23 Colorado shots. He had a 34-save shutout against the defending champion Florida Panthers in his first start.

The Avs are now 24-15-1 this season as they reach the midpoint Monday night against those Panthers. They will certainly need to be better with a significant step up in competition.

Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t have a lot of work, but he made three excellent saves when it was still a 1-0 game to give the Avs a chance. He and Scott Wedgewood have been outstanding since arriving in late November and early December. This is a game Colorado probably would have been chasing, given its lack of offense, but the new goalies have given this club a new pathway to win games.

Caulfield scored for Montreal with 6:35 remaining in the third period after an Avs turnover led to a 2-on-1. The Canadiens, who struggled to generate much offense for a lot of this contest, were pushing for an equalizer and the better of the play for the first time in the game leading up to Caufield’s goal.

The Avalanche scored the lone goal of the opening period on its second power play of the contest. Mikko Rantanen cut to the net from the right flank and Nathan MacKinnon found him. Rantanen directed the puck into the net with his foot at 9:01 of the period.

It was Rantanen’s 23rd goal of the season. The guy they call “Moose” scored a goal in his fourth straight game, and now has a 13-game point streak. That ties the longest in the NHL this season and is one shy of the longest in his career.

“He’s been phenomenal,” Bednar said. “He’s one of those one-shot goal scorers. When you need a big goal, you’ve got a guy that can score from all kinds of areas on that side of the ice.”

FOOTNOTES: Avs coach Jared Bednar said goalie Scott Wedgewood does not have a high-ankle sprain on the team’s pregame show before this contest. Bednar hopes that Wedgewood is only going to miss 1-2 weeks after falling awkwardly on Buffalo forward Zach Benson in his crease Thursday night.

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Originally Published: January 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM MST