Avs give up 3-goal lead, beat Canadiens in shootout

Brock Nelson scored in the fourth round of the shootout, helping the visiting Colorado Avalanche overcome squandering a three-goal lead in a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

Colorado's Charlie Coyle scored on a backhand in the first round before Patrik Laine leveled matters by converting in the third round. Nelson ended the wild affair by wiring a sharp wrist shot over the pad of Sam Montembeault.

Nelson collected a goal and an assist in regulation to register his second two-point performance in as many games. He tallied twice in the Avalanche's 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

Colorado, which scored four times in the first period of that game, had two goals in the opening session on Saturday on tallies by defensemen Sam Malinski and Ryan Lindgren.

Martin Necas scored on a power play in the second period and Mackenzie Blackwood made 25 saves for the Avalanche (43-25-3, 89 points), who improved to 10-1-1 over their last 12 games. Colorado also avenged a 2-1 loss in a shootout to the Canadiens on Jan. 4 in Denver.

Montreal's Juraj Slafkovsky scored two goals, Joshua Roy tallied for the second time in as many games and Christian Dvorak also found the net.

Montembeault turned aside 33 shots for the Canadiens (33-27-9, 75 points), who have lost two straight on the heels of an 8-1-2 stretch.

Nelson's deflection of defenseman Devon Toews' shot gave the Avalanche a 4-1 advantage at 3:58 of the third period.

Montreal scored twice in 30 seconds, with Roy cleaning up a loose puck in front at 9:24 of the third and Slafkovsky wiring a shot from the slot that handcuffed Blackwood. Dvorak backhanded a shot over the shoulder of Blackwood to forge a 4-4 tie with 6:28 remaining in the period.

Malinski unleashed a blast from above the right circle to open the scoring at 7:35 of the first period.

Nelson's backhanded pass found an unmarked Lindgren for an easy conversion from the slot to double the advantage just over 2 1/2 minutes later.

Stationed at the far post, Necas slapped home a brilliant diagonal pass from Jonathan Drouin to boost the Avalanche's lead to 3-0 at 5:22 of the second period.

After serving the penalty for too-many-men on the ice, Slafkovsky deflected a high shot past Blackwood 18 seconds later.

--Field Level Media