Panthers 3 - 4 Avalanche
Final - OT
  for this game

O'Reilly's OT winner lifts Avs over Panthers

Jan 19, 2012 - 5:57 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Ryan O'Reilly scored the winner with 65 seconds left in overtime to help Colorado rally for a 4-3 win over Florida.

In the extra session, O'Reilly took a feed and skated down the right wing. From the circle, he snapped a shot on net that Jose Theodore closed his pads on, but the shot had enough on it to trickle through and into the net for the win.

Peter Mueller had two goals and an assist while Paul Stastny tied the game late in the third for the Avalanche, who had lost four of five coming into the game. Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 26 stops for the win.

Stephen Weiss, Marcel Goc and Tomas Kopecky all had goals for the Panthers, who have lost their past three. Theodore stopped 40 shots in defeat.

"When you have a two-goal lead we should get the win, it's very disappointing," said Weiss. "We know how to play in overtime, but we did not cash in our chances this time."

Goc's power-play goal with 5:09 left in the first staked Florida to a 1-0 lead, but Colorado tied the game 6:50 into the second when a shot from Erik Johnson at the right point was stopped and Mueller followed up the rebound with a shot of his own that beat Theodore.

"It feels unbelievable to get this," said Mueller, who scored his first goals since April 4, 2010 as he sat out all of last season with concussion problems and was playing in just his seventh game. "I was unsure when the puck came to me, but when I got it, it was this huge monkey off my back."

Florida, though, answered with 1:12 left in the second as Weiss crashed the net and the puck slid in. The goal was reviewed to see if Weiss pushed it in with his hand, but the replay confirmed the call on the ice.

Just 20 seconds into the third, a bad bounce saw the puck go right to Kopecky at the right side and he slammed it into the empty net.

Colorado, though, made it a one-goal game three minutes later on the power play off a one-timer from Mueller and tied it with 3:17 to play as Stastny followed up his own rebound with a backhander from the low right side.

Game Notes

Colorado plays its next two games in California in Los Angeles on Saturday and Anaheim on Sunday...Florida plays in Chicago on Friday...Florida took the only meeting between the two clubs last season...Both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play.






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