Avs top Blue Jackets on Duchene's OT goal
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Matt Duchene, back after missing four games due to a concussion, scored at 1:49 of overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night at Nationwide Arena.
The well-rested Avalanche (9-9-0) took advantage of a Columbus team playing its second game in as many nights.
Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson also scored for Colorado, which got 40 saves from Semyon Varlamov.
In what seems to be the new "normal" with the Blue Jackets, Cam Atkinson scored the tying goal with seven seconds remaining in regulation. It was Atkinson's second goal of the game and seventh of the season.
Curtis McElhinney made 24 saves for the Blue Jackets (10-4-3).
After a scramble in front of and around Varlamov, Atkinson gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the game. Atkinson fired the puck at the goal, where it pinballed through a few Colorado players before trickling across the goal line.
Through the first 20 minutes of the game, the Blue Jackets held a 14-8 advantage in shots on goal.
As Alex Wennberg emerged from the penalty box after being called for hooking early in the second period, former Blue Jacket Rene Bourque evened the score for the Avalanche.
Colorado took their first lead of the game at 9:00 of the second period as Johnson scored to make it 2-1. With Fedor Tyutin credited with an assist on the go-ahead goal and Bourque scoring, both players had a point against their former team.
The Blue Jackets thought they had tied the game late in the period after Brandon Dubinsky shoveled the puck into the Avalanche net. Colorado coach Jared Bednar challenged the goal call, alleging goaltender interference.
After the play was reviewed by the NHL's "war room" in Toronto, the call on the ice was overturned.
NOTES: The Blue Jackets activated D Seth Jones off injured reserve and returned LW Markus Hannikain to the Cleveland Monsters (AHL). Jones missed six games with a hairline fracture in his foot. ... Columbus D Dalton Prout is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and missed the last four games. ... In the series between the Blue Jackets and the Avalanche, the winner has posted at least three goals in the nine of the past 11 games. ... Avalanche RW Rene Bourque and D Fedor Tyutin made their first returns to Columbus since leaving the organization. ... The Blue Jackets scratched Prout and D Scott Harrington. ... The Avalanche scratched C Joe Colborne, D Eric Gelinas and LW Gabriel Landeskog.