NEWARK, N.J. — Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar likes to break an NHL season into 10-game segments — how anyone feels about his team after the first one of the campaign might be a matter of perspective.
The Avs have points in nine of their first 10 games. They are a bounce or two from having the best start in the league.
But, Sunday afternoon at Prudential Center was also a familiar story. Jack Hughes scored in the extra session to help the New Jersey Devils, the club that is atop the NHL standings, to a 4-3 victory.
Colorado has played beyond regulation for the fourth time this season and is now 0-4 in those contests, 5-1-4 overall. It’s nearly a 115-point pace, and yet it feels like the club hasn’t fully hit its ceiling yet.
“It’s a good segment,” Bednar said. “I have no problem with the segment. I think we probably deserved better results in a couple of those games. We didn’t get them, so turn the page, move on and follow it up with a good second segment.”
This game felt like a microcosm of the season to date. For large swaths of the game, Colorado looked like a formidable outfit, especially considering the circumstances — second game in fewer than 24 hours, No. 3 goaltender in net and a foe riding a now eight-game winning streak.
The Avalanche rallied twice, which was enough to secure a point. It was not enough to snap a losing streak that has now reached four games (0-1-3).
Hughes’ second goal of the game came at 1:53 of overtime. Nathan MacKinnon lost the puck to Jesper Bratt in the New Jersey end. The Devils went the other way and Hughes created a chance with a slick move, but his shot went wide. When Cale Makar tried to get the puck out of danger, Martin Necas’ attempt to glove the puck out of the air misfired.
Simon Nemec, who had three assists in the game, sent the puck back to Hughes in almost the same spot as his attempt and this time he didn’t miss.
“I think today I just wasn’t good enough out of myself and what I expect,” said Miner who made 20 saves in his second career NHL start. “I needed to give the team a better chance. I thought they played good enough to win and just didn’t get it.”
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – OCTOBER 26: Trent Miner #50 of the Colorado Avalanche makes a save on Jack Hughes #86 of the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on October 26, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Avalanche 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Miner made 20 saves to help rally the Avs from a 4-1 deficit two games ago against Carolina in a shootout loss. Bednar said he was going to start Miner on Saturday against Boston, but decided to go back to Scott Wedgewood after the loss to Carolina.
Wedgewood is 4-0 with a .965 save percentage in his career against New Jersey, one of his former teams. Starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who missed the first 10 games, could return as soon as Tuesday against these Devils back at Ball Arena.
Nelson scored the second goal of his season with 6:05 remaining in the third period to help rally the Avs for a second time in this game. New Jersey native Ross Colton, who was promoted to the second line in the middle of this contest, made a play from behind the net to feed Nelson near the edge of the crease.
Victor Olofsson started the game on the second line in place of captain Gabe Landeskog, who was bumped to the third line. Colton replaced Olofsson, and had a hand in the game-tying goal.
“I liked the way (Colton) was playing,” Bednar said. “Wasn’t seeing enough out of the line for what I felt like we needed, especially today. I went to Colton because he seemed to have lots of energy and was making things happen.”
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The Avs allowed goals on back-to-back shifts midway through the first period. Devils forward Arseny Gritsyuk got tangled up with Artturi Lehkonen near the Colorado bench, but got up and cut to the net for a pass from Timo Meier and a goal at 9:09 of the first.
Hughes made it a 2-0 game 39 seconds later. At that point, the Devils had scored twice on four shots, but Miner settled in and the team in front of him started playing a lot better.
Valeri Nichushkin scored his fifth goal of the season at 12:55. He collected his third goal in the past three games on the rebound of a Makar shot.
MacKinnon missed a chance to tie the game with a one-timer from the slot that went wide, but he made up for it later in the same shift. Lehkonen shot from almost the same spot in the middle of the ice, and the puck ended up in the crease behind New Jersey goalie Jake Allen. MacKinnon was there to poke it across the goal line at 17:03 of the first.
It was MacKinnon’s seventh goal of the year and 14th point, which leads the club in both categories. From the time that Hughes made it 2-0 until midway through the second, the Avs dominated the play.
New Jersey went nearly 13 minutes with just one shot on goal in the middle period, but scored on the second. It came at the end of a long shift that was spent entirely in the Devils end … until the home team ended up with a 2-on-0 out of nowhere.
Colton’s shot from the left point was deflected by Landeskog and it went right to Nemec in front of Allen. Nemec made a quick pass to Connor Brown, who broke out of the zone ahead of all five Avs for a breakaway goal at 12:51 of the second.
“It just goes back to finding a way to get those extra (goals) and obviously it’s quite a bit different narrative,” Nelson said. “You’ve got to find ways to just win those games.
“Collecting points is a good thing. Just try to improve on that and make the next 10 a little bit better.”
Originally Published: October 26, 2025 at 1:52 PM MDT