DENVER — Backup goaltender Pavel Francouz entered Monday’s game near the midway point and after an imperfect regulation, was perfect in the shootout. That allowed the Colorado Avalanche to win their 14th straight at Ball Arena, 4-3.

Nathan MacKinnon’s go-ahead goal in the third period earned a long look from the officials. The puck was, by a reasonable mental leap, in the net, but covered by Minnesota Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen’s leg.

An obscured view can be a death knell for a good goal. Not this time.

“We thought that there was no way they could call it no goal,” forward Alex Newhook said. “It was a little weird because of the view, it was in his pad there, but I think we were pretty confident.”

MacKinnon’s goal was the 600th point of his career. He’s the first member of the 2013 draft class to reach that number. Florida’s Aleksander Barkov is second with 494.

For all the replay inspection, the Wild tied the game 41 seconds later. Kirill Kaprizov scored his second of the night to ensure overtime for the fifth time in eight Colorado games.

Francouz didn’t allow a shootout goal to Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Fiala or Kaprizov. Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen scored at the other end, giving the Avalanche the second standings point against a Central Division opponent.

Francouz also made three stops in a shootout win Friday.

“He’s really patient in there, doesn’t bite on the first fake or anything,” MacKinnon said.

Rantanen drew one of the penalties of the first-period 5-on-3 he eventually scored on. As Minnesota returned to even strength, Newhook waited at the hashmarks while Samuel Girard circled along the boards. Girard teed up Newhook for another Avalanche goal.

It took a period and a half, but the Wild erased that 2-0 lead.

Minnesota didn’t let the Avalanche get up to their usual tricks. It was aggressive in defending Colorado, whose odd-man rushes fizzled. A more creative approach came when Wild forward Ryan Hartman blocked a shot and held it under him, lying between the faceoff circles while seemingly uninjured. He earned two minutes for delay of game.

Minnesota’s Jordan Greenway clipped Colorado starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper high nearly nine minutes into the second period. It happened right next to Kurtis MacDermid, who honed in on Greenway and dropped the gloves. There are only a few listed pounds and an inch of height difference between the players, but MacDermid kept swinging and overpowered Greenway.

Kuemper manned the net for one more whistle then departed, finishing with 12 saves.

Francouz (25 saves) entered the game with the Avalanche leading 2-1. He got a piece of Kaprizov’s initial game-tying goal but the puck made it through. The Avalanche had two chances to clear the zone beforehand but missed.

Francouz caught a lucky break in the last minute of overtime as the puck landed in the netting next to the goalpost. The Avalanche went on to extend a franchise-record home win streak, becoming the 13th team in NHL history to reach 14.

They haven’t all been convincing, and MacKinnon didn’t see that as a bad thing.

“We were killing teams for a while there every night. It’s important for us to be in these tight games,” he said. “I think last year, we didn’t have many tight games. We beat a lot of teams pretty bad all year. I think in the playoffs that didn’t help us.

“We’re in high-pressure situations against really good teams this season.”

NOTE: Forward Valeri Nichushkin was ruled out before the game. Coach Jared Bednar said he tested positive for COVID-19 and is asymptomatic. He could return this week but won’t travel with the team to California. Bednar indicated Nichushkin could fly out later.

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