The Colorado Avalanche lost a hockey game Tuesday, but the final score was far from the biggest story of the night.

Avs star Nathan MacKinnon was ejected late in the second period of a 4-3 loss at Ball Arena after a collision with Edmonton Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram. Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal for the Oilers midway through the final period. Ross Colton also left this game for Colorado with an upper-body injury.

“Not quite sure how we got to that point, to be honest with you,” Avs forward Nazem Kardi said. “I mean, (the penalty) was reviewed too, so I was definitely surprised. But we were short on the forward side of things tonight, and obviously, with the penalty kills, it made it a little tough to come back.”

MacKinnon skated hard to the net and tried to redirect a pass from Brock Nelson near the right post. He didn’t and then crashed into Edmonton Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram.

The Oilers’ goalie left the game with an injury. Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse made contact with MacKinnon just before he collided with the goalie.

The officials called it a major penalty, then confirmed the call  and the game misconduct after a lengthy review.

“I don’t think there’s a chance — there’s no chance that he hits the goalie if Nurse doesn’t run into him,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t care if he’s injured, not injured (or) it’s a severe crash, not a severe crash. It’s not a penalty. If you put guys into your own goalie, it’s not a penalty. That’s the way I see it.”

Ingram did not return after MacKinnon collided with him, and the Oilers also lost forward Colton Dach and defenseman Ty Emberson to injuries as well.

McDavid scored Edmonton’s second power-play goal of the night put the Oilers back in front with 10:57 remaining in the third. A quick give-and-go with Leon Draisaitl set up his 36th goal of the season and made it a 4-3 game.

Valeri Nichushkin had tied this contest 1:59 prior to McDavid’s tally. The Avs killed off the MacKinnon major penalty, then Sam Malinski found Nichushkin with a shot-pass in the slot for his 14th goal of the year.

“Obviously we get the big kill and then go out there and get one. It’s great,” Avs star Cale Makar said. “We needed that. It felt like we got a lot of juice from that. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t hold them off on their last power play.”

Colton gave the Avs the lead on the first shift of the game. He collected the puck at the top of the offensive zone, had a full two seconds to survey his options and then his shot was deflected by an Edmonton stick in front. The goal came just 32 seconds in and was Colton’s eighth of the year.

Edmonton answered back at 8:13 on the power play. McDavid drew a penalty, then set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in front on the ensuing power play.

The Avs had the second-best penalty kill in the NHL at the break for the 2026 Winter Olympics at 84.7%, but the PK has struggled since the restart. Colorado is now 23 for 32 (71.9%) on the kill since the break.

“You start with your defending details,” Bednar said. “On the first one, that’s a bad read. … And on the last one, same thing.

“It can’t happen. Our detail in our penalty kill isn’t as good as it needs to be. It’s why it was so good all year. We’ve got guys making wrong reads and not doing the job that they need to do to keep it out of our net.”

Martin Necas answered with a power-play goal for the Avs at 15:41 of the first, but another defensive breakdown left Jack Roslovic all lone in front of the Colorado net for an equalizer with 24.8 seconds left in the opening period.

Nugent-Hopkins added his second of the game at 4:15 of the second, the lone tally of the period. At that point, Mackenzie Blackwood had allowed three goals on nine shots after being pulled in his previous start at Dallas, but the Avs netminder played much better throughout the rest of the contest.

Still, the penalty and game misconduct for MacKinnon, the NHL’s goal-scoring leader and Hart Trophy candidate, overshadowed everything else in this contest. It was the second game misconduct of MacKinnon’s career.

“Going (10) forwards for almost half the game is not easy, but it’s the hand we were dealt,” Kadri said. “We tried to come back. I thought we had a good push, but the end of the day, I think there’s a lot of things we could clean up tonight.”

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