MONTREAL — The Colorado Avalanche ran out of gas Saturday night, about 11 minutes from the end of a fantastic road trip through eastern Canada. Then the new guys salvaged it, anyway. Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle scored in the shootout to help the Avs shake a late collapse and claim a 5-4 win Sat urday night at Bell Centre. In the end, the Avs were a couple of fluky goals against in Toronto from a three-game sweep on the trip. This one wasn’t pretty in the third period, but it was two points and keeps Colorado on a 10-1-1 run in its past 12 contests. “I thought it was a great hockey game,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought we were really good for long stretches of that game. Obviously, there was about a seven-minute window there in the third where we didn’t handle their pushback quite as good as we could have, but we stuck with it and bounced back.” Colorado was cruising to the end of this trip, but three Montreal goals in less than three minutes flipped this contest and reignited a raucous crowd. Joshua Roy and Juraj Slafkovsky scored 30 seconds apart to cut the Avs’ advantage to 4-3 with 10:06 still to play. Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (39) stops a shot by Montreal Canadiens’ Cole Caufield, not pictured, as Avalanche’s Cale Makar (8) defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Montreal, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP) Lane Hutson hit the post and Cole Caufield nearly scored as the Habs surged, and then Christian Dvorak did tie the game with 6:28 remaining on a backhanded shot after a Colorado turnover. “You go up 4-1 and I don’t think you can sit back,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “It’s a weird one. I think you mentally check out for that half of a second, and that’s when they get the opportunity. Then it compounds and compounds and compounds. “That’s a huge learning game for us, and I’m glad it happened now rather than later.” Montreal clawed back to force overtime, but a Canadiens penalty gave the Avalanche ample opportunities to find a winner. Samuel Montembeault made eight saves in the extra five minutes to get the Canadiens to the shootout. Bednar gave a former Habs player an assist for picking Nelson to take the final shot in the shootout. “I was getting ready to go with (Jonathan) Drouin,” Bednar said. “Drouin told me to go with Nelson, that his move would beat (Montembeault). Sometimes the players know a little bit more than us from watching each other after practices, before practices. “So (Drouin) actually made that call.” Sam Malinski put the Avs in front with his third goal of the season at 7:35 of the first. Ross Colton started the rush in his own end, entered the offensive zone and sent the puck to Joel Kiviranta in the right circle. Kiviranta dropped it to a trailing Malinski, and the defenseman hammered a one-timer past Montembeault. Colton had 15 points in 42 games for the season after a 3-1 loss in St. Louis on Feb. 23. He now has 12 points in the past 12 contests. Kiviranta also has one point in seven of his past 11 games after having just 16 in the first 60. Ryan Lindgren made it a two-goal lead fewer than three minutes later. Artturi Lehkonen got the puck out of a wall scrum into the slot, and then Nelson made a great play to snag it and then feed Lindgren despite an oncoming defender for a 2-0 lead at 10:09. The Habs had a 12-7 advantage in hits after one period, including several big ones. But Colorado had a 16-6 advantage in shots. Martin Necas made it a 3-0 advantage on the power play at 5:24 of the second. Nathan MacKinnon tried to set up Valeri Nichushkin in the slot, but the Russian’s stick was lifted. The puck continued on to Drouin on the right flank, and he quickly snapped a pass to Necas at the left post for a lay-up. Related Articles Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche Journal: What are the fatal flaws that could fell the West’s top contenders? Colorado Avalanche | Grading The Week: Avalanche great Cale Makar on pace to break more of Cale Makar’s records Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche use 4-goal first period to power past Senators 5-1 Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche coach Jared Bednar still trying to find right fit for new additions: “We have a little bit of experimenting to do” Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche loses in Toronto after fallen referee helps set up winning goal Just when it felt like the Avs were going to run away with this game, Slafkovsky got one back for the Canadiens. He tipped a shot past Mackenzie Blackwood just 27 seconds after Necas’ goal. Nelson deflected a Devon Toews point shot 3:58 into the third period to restore Colorado’s three-goal advantage. It was a slow start on the stat sheet for Nelson after arriving from the New York Islanders ahead of the trade deadline. He had just two points in his first six games with the club, and Bednar moved him to MacKinnon’s wing against Toronto to try and spark him. He went back to center for the rest of the trip, and the slow start is over. Nelson had two goals in the 5-1 win Thursday night at Ottawa and added a second straight multi-point game in Montreal. “Hockey’s a funny game,” Nelson said. “I felt the first couple games I didn’t have much offense to show for it, but I felt like I had some good chances, good looks. I knew I’d settle in and playing with some of these guys here, chances were going to come.” Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis. ...read more read less