The Avalanche penalty kill deserved a lucky break, and it got one.
With under four minutes remaining in a nail-biting road trip finale Saturday, Brandon Montour fired a shot that beat Alexandar Georgiev five-hole. The goal horn sounded in south Florida. The game was tied.
Only it wasn’t. The puck rattled the inside of the left post and crawled along the goal line, but never across it. Devon Toews cleared it, the Avs killed their fourth penalty in as many tries, and Colorado won 5-3 at the Panthers to salvage three points from the three-game trip. Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, including the empty-net clincher with 58 seconds left.