Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates against Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin (15) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. Photo by: Geneva Heffernan / Associated Press
Charlie Coyle scored the only goal in the shootout to help the Colorado Avalanche rally for a 3-2 win over the short-handed Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
Coyle beat Akira Schmid with a shot into the top corner. Scott Wedgewood had 19 saves through overtime, and stopped all three Vegas shots in the shootout.
Trailing 2-0 in the second, Colorado tied it up with a power-play goal from Valeri Nichushkin that was ruled no-goal but overturned on review, and a score from Jimmy Vesey.
It was Colorado’s 23rd comeback win of the season. Nathan MacKinnon recorded an assist in extending his home point streak to 26 games.
William Karlsson had a short-handed score, his first goal since Dec. 21, for the Golden Knights, while Brayden McNabb added another. The team was missing leading-scorer Jack Eichel (upper body) along with defensemen Nicolas Hague and Alex Pietrangelo (both with an illness).
Eichel is listed as day-to-day.
The Golden Knights remain in firm control of the Pacific Division with the regular season coming to a close next week. Vegas entered the game against the Avalanche with a five-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings.
Vegas is starting to round back into health. Forward Tomas Hertl has returned to practice after missing several games with an upper-body injury. Backup goalie Ilya Samsonov has been practicing with the Henderson Silver Knights, the team’s AHL affiliate and may be back soon. He hasn’t played for Vegas since March 23.
Eichel has struggled over his last four games, with no goals or assists. His next score will be his 100th with Vegas. He’s trying to join Jonathan Marchessault (192), William Karlsson (159), Reilly Smith (127) and Mark Stone (108) as players who’ve notched 100 or more goals in a Vegas sweater.
Schmid made 34 saves on a night Vegas was outshot 36-21. It snapped a streak of seven straight games where the Golden Knights limited opponents to 24 shots or fewer.
