Mikko Rantanan, penalty kill leads Avalanche past Devils

It’s not often that a team allows two power-play goals and the penalty kill deserves a huge amount of a credit in a winning effort, but Tuesday was an atypical night at Ball Arena for the Colorado Avalanche.

Ryan Johansen and Nathan MacKinnon scored less than two minutes apart in the third period to help the Avs defeat the New Jersey Devils, 6-3, but a wild chain of events in the middle 20 minutes provided the biggest talking points from this contest.

Colorado took five penalties in the period and spent seven minutes shorthanded, including a five-minute major. That the Avs started started the period tied and ended it even was a significant positive, given the circumstances.

“That was just a crazy period,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “The whole entire second period was pretty much special teams. I thought the penalty kill did a nice job for the amount of time they were on the ice.”

The win kept the Avalanche undefeated at home this season and moved the club to 8-3 overall. Colorado had lost three of the previous four games, all by shutout, including 7-0 on Saturday night in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.

The opening period was pretty standard stuff from two teams that fancy themselves Stanley Cup contenders this season, but the game took a more violent turn in the second. Former Devils forward Miles Wood had the first big hit, on former teammate Jonas Siegenthaler, which led to a retaliation penalty from Dougie Hamilton and a big scrum.

A little more than three minutes later, Wood’s linemate Ross Colton sent Luke Hughes into the boards in a high-speed collision. Colton was incensed that a penalty was called, and in the aftermath cross-checked Timo Meier in the face. After a review, Colton was assessed two minutes for boarding Hughes, plus a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit on Meier.

“(Colton) is forechecking,” Bednar said. “I saw it very similar to the Wood hit. The guy is trying to wheel the net. We’re cutting him off. There’s going to be contact. I think the difference was Hughes at the last second tries to turn out of it without the puck, so it didn’t look good. (The official) gave him two. I’ll give him the call.

“After the fact … Meier turns back to go at Colton and he’s coming at him with his stick high. You’ve got to defend yourself, and your stick has got to come up unless you want to take one in the teeth. That’s what he does. It’s a reaction play for me. I didn’t think he deserved five (minutes).”

Meier scored 20 seconds later, while the Devils had a 5-on-3, to tie the score at 2-2. Wood returned serve with Colorado’s fourth shorthanded goal of the season to put the Avs back in front. The Devils still had 6:00 of power-play time left at that point, and Hamilton leveled the score again with a shot from the top of the circle.

All told, the Devils had 7:00 of power-play time in the second period. During the part when it was just a one-man advantage, the Avalanche had four of the 10 shot attempts and four scoring chances while shorthanded. For the season, the Avs have allowed four goals and scored four while playing 4-on-5.