Avalanche bury Devils with late rally, early OT strike

Newark, NJ (SportsNetwork.com) - P.A. Parenteau tied the game inside of two minutes remaining in the contest, and Ryan O'Reilly won it on a power play inside of the first minute of overtime, as Colorado rallied to top New Jersey, 2-1, at Prudential Center.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere backed that effort with 27 saves for the Avalanche, winners of four straight and nine of their last 11 overall. They did it once again without the services of forwards Paul Stastny and Alex Tanguay, scratched due to nagging injuries.

"Our guys were playing hard. It was a tight game and sometimes you go with your feeling when to pull the goalie and fortunately it worked for us," Avs head coach Patrick Roy said. "I am not going to take any credit for that though. It's the players. We didn't move the puck very well on the power play all game, but we scored the right power-play goal."

Ryan Carter picked up an early score and Schneider stopped 23 shots for the Devils, who fell to 1-2-2 over their last five outings.

"Tonight, the story is we have to find a way to get the second and third goal," noted Devils head coach Peter DeBoer. "We got one goal out of our fourth line and enough chances to get five. If you let anybody hang around in this league long enough, bad things will happen and that's the story lately."

Giguere was on the bench for an extra attacker when Parenteau broke up Schneider's shutout bid with 1:47 left in regulation. Gabriel Landeskog gained control to the right of the Jersey net and fed back to the point for Tyson Barrie, whose shot was tipped in front.

Devils defenseman Andy Greene then took an ill-advised slashing penalty with 42 seconds remaining, and the visitors made him pay when O'Reilly ended the contest at the 28-second mark of OT with a deflection of a Matt Duchene shot.

"I was just in front. Nate MacKinnon and Barrie moved the puck well," O'Reilly said. "Dutch [Duchene] just gave me a little tap-in there. I set my stick on the ice and didn't really do too much. I just had it in the right spot."

Carter's quick shot from the left circle off a Steve Bernier dish eluded Giguere with 1:35 to play in the first period.

Schneider let that advantage hold up by stopping six pucks in the opening 20 minutes and nine more in the second period.

Game Notes

The Devils allowed a game-tying score by the opposition late in regulation for the third consecutive time, winning the first (Dallas, 3-2) and dropped the last two (Nashville, 3-2 and Colorado, 2-1) in overtime ... Giguere picked up his first win since a 3-2 decision against Calgary on Dec. 6 ... Colorado continues its four-game road trip in Manhattan on Tuesday.