NEWARK, N.J. — Nathan Bastian scored a power-play goal with 6:56 left to play to put the New Jersey Devils on top as they rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Tuesday night.
Tomas Tatar, Ty Smith, Damon Severson also scored for the Devils. Nico Daws made 23 saves for New Jersey, which had its biggest comeback win of the season over the NHL points-leading Avs.
Yegor Sharangovich iced the game with a short-handed, empty-net goal. Jesper Bratt added three assists and Jack Hughes had two, with both helping out on the game-winner
Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar scored for the Avalanche, who were 23-0 this season when leading after the first period. Darcy Kuemper had 38 saves.
MacKinnon and Rantanen had scored power-play goals in the first period.
But playing their second game in as many nights, the Avalanche seemed to run out of gas after taking a 3-0 lead on Makar’s 21st goal of the season early in the second period.
It extended his point-scoring streak to 13 games.
By the end of the second period, the game was tied at 3, with Tatar starting the comeback at 9:20 by putting the rebound of a Jonas Siegenthaler shot off the post into an empty net.
Smith closed the gap to a goal with a shot that might have been deflected by Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard. Severson knotted the game with a power-play goal at 17:21.
Bastian got the game-winner after a power-play shot by Hughes hit him in the crease.
The puck stopped about a foot from the goal line and he swatted it home for his 10th of the season.
The loss was Colorado’s fourth loss since Jan. 14 (19-4-2).