At “Star Wars Night” inside the Pepsi Center on Sunday, Jarome Iginla scored the 599th goal of his Hockey Hall of Fame-worthy career before the Avalanche was shot down by the Arizona Coyotes in overtime.
Colorado coach Patrick Roy was irate about how his team played its third career 3-on-3 OT, which was introduced this season.
“We played it like an all-star game,” Roy said. “It was not smart by our guys.”
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Mikkel Boedker sprung free for a breakaway in OT and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov on the forehand for the 2-1 victory. Defenseman Tyson Barrie and forwards Matt Duchene and John Mitchell couldn’t get back to defend Boedker.
The Avs, who led 1-0 early on Iginla’s goal, had several chances to win it moments before Boedker ended it — including a slap shot off the crossbar by defenseman Francois Beauchemin.
“There’s a lot of good things about this game. Our PK was sharp. Our power play scored a nice goal. I thought we had a lot of good chances,” Roy said. “(But) I wasn’t happy about the way we played 3-on-3. The length of our shifts were way too long and we had no energy coming back.”
Iginla, who is looking to become the 19th member of the 600 club, scored the 181st power-play goal of his career, tying Mike Bossy for 26th all time. Iginla’s shot was a backhander that caromed in the net off a defenseman’s skate at 17:07 of the first period. It was earmarked for the corner.
“Every goal feels good,” Iginla said after the first intermission. “It was a good break.”
After the game, Iginla said No. 599 would have felt better with a win attached to it.
“You’re disappointed. You’re out there trying to contribute to a win,” said Iginla, who had six shots, including three in the third period. ” I thought I actually had some decent chances later that I thought I could get the next one. But it definitely feels good to get within one (of 600), and hopefully I’ll get it over with soon and not think too much about it.”
The Avs led 1-0 until Michael Stone tied it 2:34 into the third period with a giant slap shot that beat Varlamov high to the blocker side. Varlamov stopped Arizona’s previous 20 shots.
“The whole night, I thought we did a lot of good things, had a lot of great chances. We generated almost 40 shots — that’s a good night,” Iginla said. “I think after they got that one in the third, we got back at them to were pushing to get that winner. I thought we were going to find it. But their goalie played great. Both goalies played great.”
The Avs are four games into a stretch that has them playing nine of 10 games at home. Following Sunday’s game, they departed for San Jose, where they play the Sharks on Monday night.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers
COLORADO AT SAN JOSE 8:30 p.m. Monday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Brent Burns
The shaggy-bearded Sharks defenseman leads the NHL in goals among blue-liners, and he scored two of them against the Avalanche on Nov. 1 in Denver, where San Jose won 4-3. Burns, 30, is a 6-foot-5, 230-pound playmaker who was drafted 20th overall by Minnesota in 2003.
