Avalanche Down Blues in OT, Blawkhawks Win

Nathan MacKinnon got the Colorado Avalanche to overtime, where Gabriel Landeskog finished off a big win.

Landeskog scored at 4:44 of overtime and the Avalanche rallied late Wednesday night to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3.

It was a valuable two points for Colorado, which has overcome a slow start to move within two points of the second wild card in the Western Conference at the halfway point of the season.

The Avalanche trail Nashville for the last playoff spot with the Predators in town Friday night.

"It should be exciting to catch Nashville," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "When you look 10, 15 games ago, we were 10 points behind. It's pretty good what our guys have been doing lately."

Matt Duchene and Mikhail Grigorenko also scored for the Avalanche, who handed the Blues their fourth straight loss.

Blackhawks 3, Penguins 1

Once Artemi Panarin stopped thinking about scoring, he started scoring again. The Russian rookie had two goals for the second straight night, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat Pittsburgh 3-1 on Wednesday for their second win against the Penguins in two days.

"If (I) don't score some goals in many games, then (I) start to think too much," Panarin said through a translator. "This is what kind of not help (me). But tonight was good."

Panarin broke a 1-1 tie when he jumped on a loose puck after a faceoff and whipped it over the glove of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury at 8:56 of the third. Teuvo Teravainen added an empty-net goal as Chicago earned its season-high fifth straight win in the opener of a four-game homestand.

Panarin also had two goals in Chicago's 3-2 victory at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, including the winner in overtime. Panarin, who leads all NHL rookies with 15 goals and 38 points, had just two goals in his previous 13 games before the scoring binge against the Penguins.

Wednesday, January 6 Scoreboard

Montreal 2, New Jersey 1

Chicago 3, Pittsburgh 1    Panarin

Colorado 4, St. Louis 3 (OT)

Vancouver 3, Carolina 2

Toronto 4, Anaheim 0

Thursday, January 7 Schedule (All Times Central)

Washington at NY Islanders, 6 p.m.

Florida at Ottawa, 6:30 p.m.

Philadelphia at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

Winnipeg at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

Arizona at Calgary, 8 p.m.

Toronto at Los Angeles, 9:30 p.m.

Detroit at San Jose, 9:30 p.m.