Marino hits winner, Devils down Avalanche 5-3 – Winnipeg Free Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — John Marino scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period and Vitek Vanecek made 35 saves as the New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Tuesday night.

After the Avalanche tied the contest with two quick goals in the third, Marino gave New Jersey the lead with his fourth goal of the season at 17:43.

Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Chris Tierney and Erik Haula also scored for New Jersey, which has lost two straight. Nico Hischier had two assists.

“We've been resilient all year,” Marino said. “Give up the lead and you have to come back and win the game against a great team, so hopefully it's going to be a long road for us.”

Trailing 3-1 just over eight minutes into the third, Colorado guards Cale Makar and Samuel Girard scored 29 seconds apart to tie the game. The Avalanche scored a league-leading 42 goals and 158 points from defensemen.

Makar scored at 8:29 and Girard scored at 8:58. Makar has 306 points in 284 career games, one point shy of tying Tyson Barry as the all-time leading scorer in franchise history.

Mikko Rantanen also scored and Jonathan Drouin had two assists for the Avalanche, who led the league with 70 goals in the third period.

“We were chasing the game a little bit,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We did some good things with two minutes left. It was a hit right in the middle of the hash marks that cost us.”

Bratt's 20th goal of the season came off Avalanche rookie Justus Annunen at 3:49 of the middle period to give New Jersey the lead after the teams traded the first goal.

Bratt, who led New Jersey with 52 points, reached the 20-goal mark in his third straight season. He scored a career-high 32 goals last year.

Mercer scored his 14th goal at 6:47 of the second to make it 3-1.

“I thought we played a great game,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “We have to win at home.”

The Devils played for the first time since Jan. 27, a 6-3 loss at Tampa Bay.

Vanecek, who won 33 games in his first campaign with the Devils last season, improved to 17-8-2.

“He was solid for us all night, and we fed him, so that's huge,” Marino said.

Rantanen opened the scoring with 1:23 to play in his 28th of the season when he intercepted a Devils cleanup attempt and put the puck past Vanczek.

Tierney tied it 42 seconds later with his first goal of the season and the Devils first.

Annunen played for Colorado and then Alexander Georgiev in Monday's 2-1 loss to the Rangers. He made 26 saves.

Devils forward Tyler Toffoli, who leads the team with 21 goals, is out with an illness.

New Jersey's Jack Hughes missed his 11th game with an upper back injury. Hughes, who has 15 goals and 45 points in 32 games, has not been out since Jan. 5 when he was seriously injured in a home game against Chicago. Hughes has been skating with the team in recent days.

New Jersey was also without injured quarterbacks Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Ziegenthaler and Brendan Smith.

The game marked the return to New Jersey for Miles Wood, who played 402 games in parts of eight seasons for the Devils before joining the Avalanche as a free agent last summer.

“The device was more weird to me than the actual game,” Wood said. “I spent a lot of time here. It was great to see everyone.”

Colorado's leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon's 14-game point streak was snapped. He scored Colorado's lone goal in Monday's loss to the Rangers to extend the streak.

Vanecek denied MacKinnon 28 seconds before Marino scored, with Ruff's play being cited as particularly important.

“You can sum up the game right there,” Ruff said. “You need a big save and he did a great job.”

Next:

Devils: Host Calgary on Thursday night.

Avalanche: Travel to Carolina on Thursday night to continue their six-game streak.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl