DENVER — Every point matters for a Colorado Avalanche team clawing its way back into the playoff race.
Colorado got a big one thanks to a late regulation goal and solid goaltending from Semyon Varlamov.
Varlamov made 22 saves in regulation and overtime and stopped all three tries in the shootout, and the Avalanche rallied to beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Center Ryan O’Reilly got the tying goal with 1:45 remaining in the third period and right winger Jarome Iginla also for the Avalanche. Center Nathan MacKinnon got the only tally in the shootout.
“Getting this win leaves a good taste in our mouth,” O’Reilly said. “Now we have to get some rest and then refocus and get right back at it. If we want to make the playoffs we have to get every single point we can.”
Colorado, which is trying to get back into the postseason chase after a poor start to the season, went into the All-Star break with a much-needed win against the streaking Bruins. Boston had won five of six before Wednesday.
“It’s definitely disappointing considering we were up with a couple of minutes left,” left winger Brad Marchand said. “We did get a point. It could be worse, we couldn’t have gotten any. Going into break we’ve got to be happy with how we battled back and put ourselves in a playoff position.”
The Bruins sit fourth in the Atlantic Division and along with Washington holds one of the two wild-card spots. The Avalanche moved to within three points of Calgary for the last playoff spot in the West.
“We’ve been playing good hockey and if we can keep this up we’re going to be in a great spot,” O’Reilly said.
Boston goalie Tuukka Rask stopped 34 shots through overtime but couldn’t make the save on MacKinnon’s shot in the shootout.
Boston was playing the second game of a back-to-back.
“We looked tired in overtime,” Rask said. “We weren’t skating as fast.”
The Bruins took a 2-1 lead less than a minute after killing off Colorado’s fifth power-play chance of the night. Marchand took a pass in the slot from center David Krejci and beat Varlamov with a shot to the short side at 4:47 of the third. It was his 13th of the season.
The assist was the 400th career point for Krejci.
Varlamov came off for an extra skater with 2:19 left and O’Reilly put in a rebound 34 seconds later to send it to overtime. It was O’Reilly’s ninth of the season.
Iginla moved ahead of Mike Bossy into sole possession of 20th place on the NHL’s all-time goal scoring list with his 14th of the season in the final second of the first period.
“I didn’t even know that it was so close on the time,” Iginla said of his 574th career goal. “You know that time is running down in the period, you are just trying to go to the net.”
Left winger Alex Tanguay put a shot on net from the boards. Center Matt Duchene tried to knock in the rebound but it went off Rask and out to Iginla, whose wrister went in with .3 seconds left in the period to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
“That was poor management,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We had the puck at least three, maybe four times with 27 seconds left and we could’ve done something much better.”
The Bruins tied the game with a dominant first half of the second period. Left winger Milan Lucic’s shot from the right went off Varlamov and to defenseman Torey Krug on the other side of the net. He gathered the puck and beat Varlamov with a high shot at 6:18 of the period. It was his ninth of the season.
NOTES: Brad Marchand returned to the lineup after serving a two-game suspension for slew-footing the New York Rangers’ Derick Brassard in a Jan. 15 game. … Avalanche backup G Calvin Pickard leads the NHL in save percentage at .939. … The Bruins are the only team in the NHL not to allow a short-handed goal this season. … RW Jerome Iginla is third among active players in games played with 1,358. … Boston D Dougie Hamilton has career highs in goals (eight) and points (26) after his two-point night in Dallas on Tuesday. … Colorado RW Daniel Briere was a healthy scratch.