On what seemed to be a regular Thursday night of hockey turned into a roller coaster of emotions for Avalanche and Sabres fans as both teams went to war and Colorado defended home turf winning 6-5 in overtime. Coming into this game, the Avs were sitting comfortably around the middle of the western conference standings and were looking to find an easy two points to bolster their record and position in the Central Division with a win over the bottom feeding Buffalo Sabres. Avalanche stars Nathan Mackinnon and Mikko Rantanen are currently having stellar starts to their seasons, both at the top of the league for points scored, with Mackinnon leading the league with 64 points and Rantanen tied for second with 56 points. This game was meant for Colorado to get themselves an easy win on home ice, and to boost the confidence of their players over an inferior opponent, but the game went unlike anyone could have expected.

First Period

The scoring opened with just under seven minutes to go in the first period, with the Sabres on the power play a cross crease pass found the stick of Jason Zucker waiting on the doorstep, and he was able to stuff it past the pads Scott Wedgewood to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead. But the Sabres weren’t done there, as after a dangerous chance from Colorado Buffalo found themselves with an odd-man rush with Jason Zucker once again with the puck in open ice and only one defender in front of him. However, he opted to find Bowen Byram cutting in behind the defense who deked around Wedgewood and finished with a beautiful backhand shot to put the Sabres up 2-0 after 20 minutes.

Colorado found themselves in a hole early and were on their heels coming out of the first intermission desperate for a turnaround, but all they were met with was more unfortunate luck.

Second Period

Just five minutes into the second the Avs looked to have a chance off the rush, and Devon Toews sent a pass in front that redirected off Jonathan Drouin’s foot and into the back of the net. Though what seemed to be a sprout of life turned into more despair for Colorado, as after review it was shown that upon entry into the zone Drouin’s foot was offside before the goal and the score was taken away. The Avalanche were still down two goals and even more wind was taken out of their sails when Jason Zucker scored his second power play goal and tallied his third point of the night to put Buffalo up 3-0. No one seemed to have an answer for Buffalo’s offence and the power play was rolling on all cylinders, Colorado was looking like they were beating themselves at this point but things began to turn for the better when Cale Makar received a drop pass at the point and barreled towards the net before releasing a perfectly placed shot over the shoulder of Sabres Goalie Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen and giving the Avalanche momentum at the end of the period and shortening the deficit to 3-1. It took the Avs 40 minutes to finally find the score sheet, but the base was set to mount the comeback going into the third and final frame.

Third Period

Colorado opened the scoring when a shot from the point was stopped by Luukkonen, and Ross Colton was in perfect position to gobble up the rebound and will the puck into the back of the net. A greasy goal in front brought the Avs to within one and the feeling inside Ball Arena was apparent that the momentum had finally shifted in favor of the home team. But what would a game like this be without a little controversy am I right? well during a play, Colorado’s Parker Kelly pushed over Buffalo’s Zach Benson who fell over into the crease of the net and landed on Scott Wedgewood’s leg. Wedgewood was in obvious pain, staying down on the ice grabbing his leg while Benson returned to his feet, gathered the puck and wrapped around to tuck in the goal putting the Sabres up 4-2 and what followed was a brawl between everyone on the ice. After the scrapping had stopped a coaches challenge was instigated by Colorado on the grounds of goaltender interference against Benson, hoping to overturn the call that seemed so clear to everyone in the arena. However, after video review the referees determined that NO goalie interference was made and the call on the ice stood with the verdict being a good goal.

The  referees said that since Kelly was the one who pushed Benson over, the act of him falling over and injuring Wedgewood was not on purpose and could have been avoided had Kelly not touched him. Avs Head Coach Jared Bednar was asked after the game about the incident and he said, “If he’s hurt and he’s not getting up, and they can evaluate that, and they’re standing right there looking at it, the whistle should go.” The rains of boos following the coaches challenge were deafening inside the arena, but the Avalanche needed to channel their frustration and turn it into the energy they needed to get that goal back and claw back into the game.

Shortly after with 15 minutes left to go and a 5 on 3 Colorado power play, Nathan Mackinnon fired a pass across to a wide open Mikko Rantanen sitting at the top of the faceoff circle. Rantanen let go of the one timer and beat Luukkonen to bring the Avs back to within one with the score now at 4-3. But with five minutes left to go guess who? Jason Zucker once again gets in front and buries his third goal after a misplay behind the Colorado net. Zucker’s hat trick and 4 point night really made it look like Buffalo had the game won, with a 2 goal lead and the clock now fighting the Avs as well, it was gonna take a huge effort from the whole team to keep the game alive. With two and a half minutes remaining, Colorado had pulled their goalie and had the extra attacker on looking to put pressure on the Sabres. Cale Makar and Nathan Mackinnon walked the line together and set up a tic-tac-toe one timer for Makar at the point and he rifled it into the back of the net for his second goal of the night. Now there was one last gasp for the Avs, less than 10 seconds to go still with the extra man on, Nathan Mackinnon had the puck down by the corner and sent it to Jonathan Drouin standing in the slot and fired his own one-timer that beat UPL and got Colorado even at 5-5.

NO WORDS, JUST GREAT VIBES. JONATHAN DROUIN!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/HloBp19gzt

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) January 3, 2025

Drouin had righted his previous wrong and scored the biggest goal of the night after having one taken back because of his offside call. The impossible had happened, against all odds the Avalanche had gotten themselves back to square one and the fans were erupting with joy. But the game wasn’t over yet, and the comeback wouldn’t be complete until they got one more in OT.

Overtime

To put it blunt, overtime was short and sweet as it only took 40 seconds for Devon Toews to pick Tage Thompson’s pocket and give himself a breakaway down the ice and sniped a wrist shot past the blocker side of Luukkonen and became the overtime hero.

Puck don’t lie 🚨#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/HJBXbBEWu1

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) January 3, 2025

Fans who stayed for the entire game were treated to a magical night and one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever seen, watching their team come away with a win and the extra point in an absolute dogfight of a game.

Key Players:

Colorado:

Nathan Mackinnon: 3A

Cale Makar: 2G

Devon Toews: 1G 2A

Mikko Rantanen: 1G 1A

Buffalo:

Jason Zuker: 3G 1A

Tage Thompson 3A

Zach Benson: 1G

Winner – Colorado Avalanche (24-15-0)

Loser -Buffalo Sabres (14-20-5)