VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Sven Baertschi fired in a picture-perfect shot under pressure.
The Swiss forward scored 1:07 into overtime Tuesday night, ripping his 11th goal of the season shortside over Jonathan Bernier’s glove to give the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
“I didn’t know I had that in my bag, to be honest,” Baertschi said. “In overtime, it can go both ways. But I thought we really deserved it tonight.”
Baertschi saluted the crowd in celebration, a tribute to the military personnel in attendance on a night when the Canucks honored members of the Canadian Forces.
“Half the time you almost faint after you score, it feels like,” he said. “That’s the first thing that popped in my head.”
Bo Horvat, Michael Del Zotto and Daniel Sedin also scored for Vancouver. Jacob Markstrom stopped 27 shots, and Christopher Tanev had three assists in the first three-point game of his career.
Vancouver was coming off a listless 4-0 home loss to Buffalo before the All-Star break.
“There’s not a lot of nights this year that I’ve said that I didn’t like our effort,” coach Travis Green said. “But there are the nights where you’re not really happy with your group, and Buffalo was one of those games.
“I liked how our group came out tonight.”
Gabriel Landeskog scored twice and J.T. Compher had the other goal for Colorado, which got 22 saves from Bernier. Mikko Rantanen added two assists for the Avalanche, who lost leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon to an upper-body injury in the second period.
Colorado has dropped three in row after winning 10 straight games.
“I thought our guys battled pretty hard,” coach Jared Bednar said. “We got one (point) out of it.”
Trailing 3-2 after allowing three straight goals in the second period, the Canucks tied it two minutes into the third when Sedin scored his 12th of the season on a 5-on-3 power play as he fell to the ice.
The Avalanche nearly went back ahead on a man advantage of their own, but Rantanen hit the post behind Markstrom before Sedin also clanged one off the iron behind Bernier a couple of minutes later.
“Not the second period we wanted - couple unfortunate bounces - but it just shows the character we have in this room to come back like that and not get discouraged,” Horvat said. “Danny had a huge goal, and Sven had a heck of a shot in overtime.”
Markstrom made a big stop on Colin Wilson with just more than a minute to go in regulation.
Down 2-0 after the first period, Colorado got on the board at 4:20 of the second when Erik Johnson’s shot deflected off Tanev’s stick in front and changed direction on its way toward Markstrom. The goalie appeared to try to head butt the puck to safety, but Compher was there to tap home his ninth.
Colorado tied it 2:02 later when Tyson Barrie’s shot from the slot that was stopped by Markstrom bounced off Landeskog and in for his 18th.
Vancouver failed to connect on consecutive power plays despite a number of chances, and the Avalanche made the Canucks pay when Landeskog scored his second of the night on a Colorado man advantage at 15:05 with a shot that got stuck behind the middle post in Markstrom’s net.
MacKinnon, second in NHL scoring behind Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov with 61 points, was hurt shortly thereafter on a hit from Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler. The 22-year-old center appeared to be favoring his left shoulder on the bench before heading to the locker room.
“I really don’t know a timeline,” Bednar said. “We’ll probably know more (Wednesday).”
The Canucks opened the scoring at 6:36 of the first after the Avalanche turned the puck over at the offensive blue line.
Thomas Vanek poked the puck ahead to Horvat, who raced past Samuel Girard before beating Bernier low to the blocker side for his 11th - and first in four outings since returning from a broken foot that sidelined Vancouver’s top center for 18 games.
Colorado had a chance to get even a couple of minutes later, but Markstrom was there to stop Dominic Toninato on a 2-on-1 rush.
Del Zotto stretched the Canucks’ lead to 2-0 at 11:45 when his shot from the point through traffic beat Bernier over his blocker for the defenseman’s third of the season.
NOTES: Barrie returned to the lineup after missing 13 games with a broken hand.
UP NEXT
Avalanche: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
Canucks: Continue a five-game homestand Thursday against Chicago.
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