Panthers squander 3-goal lead, rally to beat Avs 5-4
DENVER (AP) – Matthew Tkachuk scored his second goal of the game with 3:30 left and the Florida Panthers beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period on Tuesday in the evening.
Tkachuk continued to slide the puck downfield on a power play until defenseman Cale Makar finally pushed him to the side. But the puck went in off the skate of Avalanche forward Evan Rodrigues.
“It’s what it’s made for, isn’t it?” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk in the closing moments of the game. “He doesn’t mind going to the net. Finally, this is what happens. They’re not the good guys at the time.”
Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour and Sam Bennett all scored in the first period to give the Panthers a quick 3-0 lead. Tkachuk added another goal in the second.
“He’s scored big goals for us all year and there’s only one more,” Bennett said of Tkachuk.
Trailing 4-1 midway through the third, Colorado got goals from Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon just 20 seconds apart. JT Compher tied it with 7:53 remaining, moments after the Avalanche had a goal disallowed on a successful Panthers offside challenge.
“We will give up three goals straight away. That’s tough,” Rantanen said. “It’s tough to come back and we did it.”
The Avalanche were frustrated with Rantanen’s interference penalty that put the Panthers on the power play and led to Tkachuk’s game-winner. Florida could have caught a break with a high post that wasn’t called.
“I didn’t like the sequence at all,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I mean, Compher takes one in the face in the neutral zone. They let it go. Thirty seconds later, we get called one, one, I think a guy embellishes a little bit. I’m just thinking, what let the players decide.”
Rantanen added: “I’m not saying anything about the referees, I’m just saying it’s a tall stick. That’s all I’m saying.”
The Avalanche pulled goaltender Alexandar Georgiev with a minute left, but couldn’t get the equalizer.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for Florida.
Andrew Cogliano also scored for the Avalanche, who have lost six of their last seven games (1-5-1). Georgiev made 32 saves in his 12th straight start, the most by a Colorado goaltender since Semyon Varlamov had 22 in 2015.
The two teams could combine for a piece of history they really don’t want. Florida and Colorado were two of the best teams in the NHL last year, with the Panthers winning the Presidents’ Trophy for most points during the regular season and the Avalanche capturing the Stanley Cup.
With each team currently out of the playoff picture, this could mark the first time in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) that the reigning No. 1 regular-season seed and the defending Stanley Cup did not have a playoff spot. halfway through the season, according to NHL Stats. The Panthers are past the half, but Colorado has two more games before the halfway mark.
Tkachuk has 22 goals and 29 assists in 39 games. He is the third Panthers player to reach 50 points in 39 or fewer games, joining Pavel Bure (34 games in 1999-00) and Jonathan Huberdeau (twice: 37 games in 2021-22 and 38 games in 2019- 20).
AROUND THE TRACK
Colorado defensemen Josh Manson and Bowen Byram have resumed skating. Both are out with lower body injuries. … Bennett, Barkov and Montour each had a goal and an assist. … MacKinnon scored his 253rd career goal to pass Anton Stastny for fifth on the franchise list.
UNTIL THE NEXT
Panthers: At Las Vegas on Thursday to finish their four-game road trip.
Avalanche: Thursday in Chicago. Colorado’s next win would be No. 500 in the regular season since the franchise moved from Quebec to Denver before the 1995-96 season.
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