DENVER — Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin had himself a night in a 2-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights.
On Wednesday, as the Avalanche hosted the Golden Knights at Ball Arena, Nichushkin scored the game-tying goal and then scored the game winner in a thrilling five-round shootout.
The first period was all goaltending as both Avalanche goalie Alexander Georgiev and Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill stopped everything that was thrown their way. Georgiev stopped six shots and Hill stopped 10.
In the second period, it was Vegas who broke through first. After a breakout from their defensive zone, Vegas' Pavel Dorofeyev took a pass from Ivan Barbashev scoring on Georgiev's stick side with 6:51 left in the period.
Colorado would even the game less than a minute later. With about 6:20 left in the period, Nichushkin incepted an attempted pass from Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb and fired the puck past Hill for his second goal of the season. The score would remain tied going into the second intermission. Colorado outshot Vegas 11-4 in the period.
Colorado continued to keep the Vegas shots in the single digits during the third period, outshooting the Golden Knights 14-5. Sixty minutes would not be enough to decide this game, the two teams headed to overtime.
Hill kept Vegas alive, stopping all three shots he saw in overtime and forcing a shootout. Vegas was unable to put a shot on net during the 5 minute overtime period. This game needed to be decided by a shootout.
Continuing the trend of the night, goaltending was top-notch. The shootout went to the fifth round when Nichushkin fired a shot past Hill on his glove side for the game winner.
Colorado will finish up the month of November with a quick road trip to take on the Dallas Stars Friday and then return home to host the Edmonton Oilers Saturday.
