Nathan MacKinnon, Scott Wedgewood key incredible Avalanche comeback in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Maybe the worst 12 minutes of the season will be a turning point for the Colorado Avalanche.

Even if it isn’t, it did set up one of the wildest comebacks in recent franchise history. The Avs spotted the Buffalo Sabres a four-goal lead, still trailed by three after 40 minutes and then roared back for a 5-4 win Tuesday night at KeyBank Center.

Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, Artturi Lehkonen added the game-winner and Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves in 48 minutes of shutout relief to help the Avs avoid what looked like an ugly start to this season-long five-game road trip.

“After the first 12, it was pretty good,” MacKinnon said. “It just felt like there was a lot of time left. (Jared Bednar) didn’t rip us too bad. He was pretty calm. I find sometimes when the coach comes in and is negative on top of how negative we feel, it’s just tough to come back.

“We felt like there was a lot of time, and we played well in the second and third.”

MacKinnon began the comeback early in the second period with his first goal in 11 games. The visitors continued to push, but Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen protected the three-goal lead despite 34 shot attempts and 20 scoring chances in the middle period.

Then, the Avs really got rolling.

Beyond the goaltending, another issue that has become more prominent of late is a lack of depth scoring. That returned in the third period Tuesday night.

Joel Kiviranta and Logan O’Connor both put home rebounds of shots by defensemen in the opening 4:30 of the final period to cut Buffalo’s lead to 4-3 and give the Avs a real chance at the comeback.

“I thought that really turned it around for us was (Ivan) Ivan, (Kiviranta) and (O’Connor),” Bednar said. “They got it started. They followed it up with another goal. And it was their work and relentlessness on the puck that really kind of started to spark our bench.”

MacKinnon made sure that he was out of his mini-funk as well. He tipped a Mikko Rantanen shot in the slot past Luukkonen, and suddenly the Avs had come all the way back to tie the game with 12:21 remaining in the third period.

Lehkonen put the Avs in front with 4:22 remaining, slotting home the rebound of a Calvin de Haan shot. MacKinnon collected the secondary assist for a three-point night.

“I mean, I’ve been an issue,” MacKinnon said when asked about secondary scoring. “It’s been tough, but especially (O’Connor) and (Kiviranta) — they’ve been really solid all year. For them to chip in a couple is huge.”

The first period, particularly the opening 12 minutes, were an abject disaster for the Avs. Colorado had to kill off a pair of penalties, and those four minutes were the best of the bunch.

Buffalo scored four times on eight shots during 5-on-5 play, chasing Alexandar Georgiev at 11:49 of the period. If the 4-0 score didn’t show how poorly the Avs were playing, there was plenty of other data to do the job.

At one point during the first period, the scoring chances were 9-0 in favor of the Sabres, per Natural Stat Trick. Buffalo had six high-danger scoring chances, while Colorado had just six shot attempts of any kind.

“We brought it on ourselves, not being ready to start on time,” Bednar said. “Nobody was ready to start on time, and it showed. They filled the net early.”

Tage Thompson scored Buffalo’s first two goals. The first came at 3:22, when he put home the rebound of a Connor Clifton point shot that hit the crossbar. Colorado challenged for goalie interference, but it was ruled a legal goal.

Thompson scored again at 6:39. He carried the puck toward the Avalanche zone, sent a pass to Jason Zucker and then got it back after getting behind the Colorado defense. J.J. Peterka made it a 3-0 lead just 11 seconds later.