Nick Holden provided the game-winning goal in the third period as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 on Friday night in Sunrise, FL.
The Panthers (20-13-9) registered a 4-3 overtime win over the Avalanche (19-17-9) in the only other meeting between the two clubs this season on Oct. 21 in Denver.
The Avalanche improved to 1-1-1 on their current five-game road trip with the victory. They will make stops in Tampa Bay and St. Louis to close out the trip.
“It was an important game for us. We had some good moments in Washington and we had that good third period in Carolina,” coach Patrick Roy said. “1-1-1 is a big difference if you compare it to 0-2-1.”
Semyon Varlamov tied David Aebischer for fourth all-time in Avalanche history with 89 wins.
Jarome Iginla scored his 573rd career goal – tying Mike Bossy for 20th all-time in NHL history.
With two assists, Alex Tanguay moved into sole-possession of the team lead with 31 points on the season.
The Avalanche played much of the game short one forward after Borna Rendulic, who had been playing on the third line with John Mitchell and Dennis Everberg, was knocked out of the game with a foot injury in the first period.
“I tried to double-shit the guys on the top two lines with Mitchell and Everberg,” coach Roy said. “They both had a really good game.”
After averaging over 43 shots against over the last five games, the Avalanche held the Panthers to 32 shots on Semyon Varlamov.
Colorado scored on the game’s first shot at 2:11 of the first period. Tyson Barrie patiently moved from the point into the slot before sniping a shot off the post and in.
Aaron Ekblad – 2014’s number one overall draft pick – answered with a power play goal four minutes later to even the score. It was the 18-year-old’s sixth goal of his rookie season.
Gabriel Landeskog and Aleksander Barkov traded second period goals to keep things tied heading into the closing frame.
Landeskog buried his goal by powering his way out of the corner to the front of the net before jamming the puck past Roberto Luongo.
Holden broke the tie with one second left on an Avalanche power play in the third period. Tanguay fed the puck to Holden, whose wrist shot was redirected off of Florida forward Scottie Upshaw on its way past Luongo. Cody McLeod was stationed in front of Luongo providing a screen. Colorado’s power play finished the night 1-for-5.
“They had a lot of good chances in the first and Varly was very good,” coach Roy said. “But I thought that we regrouped after the first and we were much better cutting down on the shots in the second and third.”
The Avalanche are back at it Friday night when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning for the only time this season.