Jonathan Drouin completes incredible comeback with overtime goal

If there’s one team we don’t have to worry about between now and the end of the season, it’s the Colorado Avalanche.

They are currently in a heated battle for first place in the NHL, with a very good record of 46-20-5, which placed them third in the entire league before Sunday’s games.

On Sunday afternoon, they faced the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins, who were in 24th place overall before today’s games.

A team they had little to fear.

On the other hand, the Penguins came very close to upsetting the Avalanche, scoring the first four goals of the game.

With just over four minutes remaining in the second period, following Pittsburgh’s fourth goal, the Avalanche’s chances of winning were slim.

That’s when an incredible comeback began.

Colorado’s newest acquisition, Sean Walker, scored his 9th goal of the season to make it 4-1.

Just before the end of the second period, Yakov Trenin, another recent acquisition, cut the deficit to two goals.

To start the third period on the right foot, Quebec’s Jonathan Drouin decided to take the comeback to heart.

He scored a beautiful goal on the rebound to make it 4-3 in favor of the Pens.

Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews were credited with assists on Drouin’s 14th goal of the season:

Jonathan Drouin is on . After registering 2 assists last game, he scores a beauty on a rocket one-timer. What a blast! @jodrouin27@OctagonHockey pic.twitter.com/PFOIPVjxKC

– Allan Walsh (@walsha) March 24, 2024

About ten minutes later, with less than five minutes left in the game, none other than Nathan MacKinon completed the comeback to force overtime in this game.

Drouin and MacKinnon have clearly rediscovered the chemistry they had with the Halifax Mooseheads.

MacKinnon’s Drouin-prepared catch-and-shoot goal was a carbon copy of Drouin’s MacKinnon-prepared goal.

I’m happy for Drouin, who finally seems to have found his place in Colorado with his good friend, MacKinnon.

And you guessed it: it was Jonathan Drouin who gave his team victory in overtime with a magnificent goal.

Drouin and MacKinnon each had three points in the win.

This comeback shares many similarities with the Montreal Canadiens’ historic comeback against the New York Rangers.

In fact, MacKinnon extended his streak of home games with at least one point to 34 – every game at home.

He’s getting dangerously close to the record held by Wayne Gretzky, who scored a point in every 40 home games, even though they were only 80-game seasons.

He could thus become the first player in history to keep that streak at 41 consecutive home games in a single season.

The victory puts the Avalanche in first place in the NHL (99 points), ahead of the Vancouver Canucks (98 points) and Rangers (98 points).

The Rangers and Canucks did not play on Sunday. This consolidates first place for Colorado for today.

Overtime

– Read more.

– Stay tuned.

– Evander Kane will not take part in tonight’s game.

– An important date for the new era of hockey.

It’s the anniversary of the first ever Michigan goal!

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and watch every Michigan goal scored in the NHL… pic.twitter.com/wp8w0XpOKB

– NHL (@NHL) March 24, 2024