Eurolanche

Avalanche beat the Jets

Erik Johnson scored on a breakaway with 9.9 seconds left in overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Pepsi Center on Tuesday.

The Avalanche had a 2-0 lead with 5:45 left in the second period when goalie Semyon Varlamov (21 saves) left with a lower-body injury as the Jets began a power play, which Colorado killed with Jonathan Bernier in net in relief.

Blake Wheeler scored two third-period goals for the Jets (23-11-7), who are 3-0-1 in their past four games.

Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche (20-16-3), who have won three games in a row and are 3-1-0 to begin a six-game homestand.

Wheeler scored his second goal with 32.2 seconds left in the third period to tie it 2-2 after Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck went to the bench for a sixth skater.

The Jets closed to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Wheeler 47 seconds into the third period. He deflected Patrik Laine's shot past Bernier.

That ended the Avalanche's penalty-killing streak at 36 covering parts of 12 games. Defenseman Mark Barberio was in the penalty box for boarding Bryan Little at 19:04 of the second period. MacKinnon and Rantanen scored in the second period to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead.

MacKinnon scored his 17th goal, one more than he had last season, at 7:44 for a 1-0 lead. Rantanen was behind the net when he passed in front to MacKinnon, who shot past Hellebuyck's extended left leg.

MacKinnon set up Rantanen's goal at 11:31 to make it 2-0. MacKinnon made a move on Winnipeg's Joel Armia in the slot and passed to Rantanen, who was at the right side of the net when he shot inside the near post.

--by Rick Sadowski / NHL.com--