You don’t often see costly mistakes from a player of Cale Makar’s caliber. But the superstar defenseman made his second blunder in recent weeks on Thursday after he accidentally slid the puck into his own goal late in the overtime period to give the Arizona Coyotes a 4-3 victory over the Avalanche at Mullett Arena.
Makar was on the ice for a lengthy shift which included a full two-minute power play for the opposition that the Avs successfully killed. Largely because of his play. At the end of his 2:22 shift, Makar tried to slide the puck under goalie Alexandar Georgiev in the crease to get a whistle. Instead, it slid through the Colorado netminder’s five-hole for the game-winner.
The Avs picked up a point in the loss, falling to 15-6-1 on the season. Their 31 points are tops in the Central Division and just one back of Vegas for the most in the Western Conference. The Avs are also 7-1-1 in their past nine. The regulation loss in that stretch, a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Nashville Predators two weeks ago, also included a late-game mishap from Makar.
Miles Wood, Nathan MacKinnon and Makar scored for the Avalanche in the first of a three-game road trip. Colorado plays a back-to-back over the weekend before returning home to start a five-game homestand.
Despite the overtime loss, the Avalanche’s strong power play continued to produce. Colorado has been consistently effective on the man advantage over the past nine games. Since suffering an embarrassing defeat to the Blues nearly three weeks ago, the Avs have scored a power-play goal in each game of their games during the 7-1-1 run.
Against the Coyotes, both Makar and MacKinnon capitalized on the man advantage. It had been a while since they scored twice on the power play in the same game, but they needed both to come from behind in the third period and force overtime.
MacKinnon fired a one-timer from the circle off a set-up from Makar to tie the game at 3-3. It was MacKinnon’s first power-play goal of the season. Makar’s tally was the opening goal.
Through this stretch, the Avs have operated at a 27.5% success rate on the man advantage. And while it’s far from the best since Nov. 13, their 11 goals on the power play are the most in the league. They have also drawn an NHL-best 40 power plays, which are six more than the next team.
The Avs led 1-0 and 2-1 on Thursday before the Coyotes used a power-play goal of their own to tie the game up. They then took a 3-2 lead early in the third period to force the Avs to play from behind for the first time. Despite coming up short in OT, the Avalanche continue to lead the NHL in come-from-behind wins.