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AVALANCHE 4, BRUINS 3 (SO)

Bruins make their point, but Avalanche win it in a shootout

With two goals, Brad Marchand moved into sole possession of fifth place on the Bruins' all-time points list.Matthew Stockman/Getty

DENVER — They made their point.

Boston (24-8-7) battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits and then killed a pair of late penalties without some of their top killers to secure the point.

Brandon Carlo left in the second with an upper-body injury and Hampus Lindholm went to the box for interference, leaving the Bruins without their top penalty killing defensive tandem late in the game.

“I mean, we’re satisfied. Brando left early in the second, so at basically five D-men the rest of the way there,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “I thought we won more battles after the first period. I thought Colorado was on top of us in the first and I thought we got to our puck possession game in the offensive zone.”

With two goals, Brad Marchand moved into sole possession of fifth place on the Bruins’ all-time points list with 899, passing Rick Middleton.

Trailing, 3-2, entering the third, Boston got a goal from Brad Marchand (his second of the game and 17th on the season) to tie it.

The Bruins had chances to grab the extra point in overtime — including a power play for the final 1:58 — but Alexander Georgiev stoned them.

“We competed hard, unfortunately we couldn’t get that second point. Had a couple opportunities,” Marchand said. “We kind of squandered the power play in overtime, so we need to be a little bit better there in those opportunities, closing the games. But yeah, we did a good job getting a point, still need to improve on a few things, so we’ll look to do that [Tuesday against the Coyotes].”

Nichushkin was the only player to convert in the shootout. Jake DeBrusk, Charlie Coyle, and David Pastrnak were blanked, while Swayman stopped Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

The Avalanche, fresh off an 8-4 beatdown by the Panthers on home ice, came out with a noticeable jump in their skates with Ross Colton and Mikko Rantanen each landing wristers on Swayman (33 saves) in the opening minutes.

Swayman, who was greeted with loud cheers by a squadron of Bruins fans that invaded Ball Arena when he was introduced as the starter, was on his game early.

Pastrnak had Boston’s first chance, snagging the puck off Pavel Zacha’s faceoff win and stunning Colorado goalie Alexander Georgiev, who made the reactionary save.

Matt Grzelcyk and Danton Heinen, who played his college hockey just slap shot down the road at Denver, also landed testers on Georgiev, who came in with 21 wins on the season.

Colorado got the first power-play chance (Marchand for slashing), but it was the Bruins who dominated the two minutes.

Coyle picked MacKinnon’s pocket and landed a quality shot on Georgiev followed by a DeBrusk breakaway attempt that Georgiev blocked.

The Bruins drew first blood on the power play after Andrew Cogliano tripped Parker Wotherspoon in Swayman’s crease.

The power play looked ugly in the first minute with Colorado getting three straight clears before Boston connected.

Pastrnak hit Pavel Zacha, who dropped a pass to Marchand. The Bruins captain twirled and attacked, unleashing a dart from atop the right circle that Georgiev never saw.

The Avalanche tied with Coyle in the box for a trip on MacKinnon.

Cale Makar controlled at the blue line and zipped a pass to MacKinnon. Colorado’s leading scorer calmly fired it toward the net where Rantanen tipped it to the top shelf past Swayman.

The second started with four on four with Colorado’s Jack Johnson (hooking) and Charlie McAvoy (tripping) serving holdover penalties from the first.

Logan O’Connor, who, like Heinen, played for Jim Montgomery at Denver, put the Avalanche ahead with an unassisted goal, the result of some Bruins calamity.

Kevin Shattenkirk lost the puck in a friendly-fire collision with Zacha and O’Connor collected it and walked in alone and beat Swayman.

Carlo, the Colorado native, helped the Bruins tie it. The big defenseman dumped the puck in the corner, where Heinen swooped in and tried a wraparound attempt. The puck trickled through the blue paint, and a hard charging Johnny Beecher shoved it home.

Carlo left shortly after his assist.

The Avalanche nearly tied it moments later when Colton’s backhander got past Swayman, but McAvoy chopped the puck out just before it reached the goal line.

Colorado regained the lead when Sam Malinski, who was just called up from the club’s AHL affiliate earlier in the day, unleashed a rising wrister from the blue line that eluded Swayman.

The Avalanche owned the territorial edge in the second, a period that featured rare matching too many men on the ice penalties.

Marchand’s second goal, a pretty backdoor conversion of a Coyle pass, effectively secured the point and set the stage for an entertaining overtime.

“The whole line did a great job just controlling the puck in the ozone and having good possession time and I just tried to drive the net, open up a lane or something, and [Coyle] did a great job, kind of seeing me go in there and made a great play to throw it off my body,” said Marchand.

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.