DENVER -- Zack Kassian was shocked he was the only one to see the puck sitting in front of the Colorado net, so the Edmonton Oilers forward rushed toward the easy scoring chance before the ref blew his whistle or someone covered it up.

"I saw it there, I was probably 10 strides away and I was just hoping I could get there before someone else," he said. "Everyone thought the goalie had it. It snuck through somehow and just sat right on the goal line. A bit of a lucky one."

Kassian's gift goal early in third period sparked a five-goal outburst for the Oilers, and they went on to beat the Avalanche 7-4 on Thursday night.

Drake Caggiula scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:11 left, and Jordan Eberle and Leon Draisaitl added insurance goals in the final 1:10 for Edmonton, which won for only the sixth time in 26 games when trailing after two periods.

Andrej Sekera had a goal and two assists, Milan Lucic and Zack Kassian also scored, and Laurent Brossoit had six saves in relief of Cam Talbot to lead Edmonton to the win.

"I didn't think we were the best team and we were lucky enough to win the game," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "Had a little bit of puck luck."

The Oilers (40-25-9) tied it early in the third and completed the comeback to move into a tie for second with Anaheim in the Pacific Division. Caggiula beat Jeremy Smith with a backhander at 17:49, his first goal since Jan. 26, and Eberle, who finished with two goals and an assist, scored 1:01 later.

Draisaitl added an empty-net goal in the final minute.

"The first two periods we weren't at our best," Caggiula said. "We had pretty tough talk among ourselves. We had the resiliency to come back and have our best performance at the end."

Talbot allowed two goals on Colorado's first four shots and gave up four goals on 15 total shots before being relieved by Brossoit at the start of the third period.

After posting consecutive shutouts and not allowing a goal in 148 minutes, 18 seconds, Talbot has given up eight on his last 33 shots.

Brossoit relieved him midway through the second period Wednesday and came on at the start of the third against Colorado.

"Just trying anything tonight to find a spark for our group," McLellan said.

Mikko Rantanen had two goals, J.T. Compher and Rene Bourque had a goal apiece and Nathan MacKinnon finished with two assists for Colorado (20-50-3). Smith had 23 saves.

Brossoit got the win, thanks to a rare third period rally by Edmonton. Kassian made it 4-3 when he pounced on a puck sitting in the crease behind Smith and knocked it in at 2:44. Eberle tied it at 4:34 with his 15th of the season.

"They scored a goal and then we stood around, looked like we were scared to lose," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We have nothing to lose. We should be thriving in some of those moments."

Rantanen broke a 2-2 tie with his second goal of the game at 4:22 of the second. It was his second multi-goal game of the season; he had his first career hat trick against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 7.

Bourque gave Colorado another two-goal lead with his 12th goal at 17:45 of the middle period before Edmonton rallied.

"Last year and the year prior, we probably would have found ways to lose or dug a bigger hole," Kassian said.

The Avalanche took the lead with two quick goals to start the game. Rantanen scored on Colorado's first shot at 3:20, and Compher made it 2-0 at 9:54 with his second of the season.

Edmonton shook off its slow start with two goals in 57 seconds spanning the first two periods.

Sekera poked a rebound through Smith's legs to cut Colorado's lead to 2-1 at 19:29 of the first, and Lucic scored his 18th of the season 26 seconds into the second period to tie it.

"I feel like it happens every game," Rantanen said. "We lead in the third period, and then we just give up easy goals. We could have probably kept four of those away but we can't do it."

NOTES: Edmonton C Connor McDavid had two assists to increase his NHL scoring lead to six points over Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby (87-81). ... Avalanche D Patrick Wiercioch was scratched for the seventh game in a row and F Mikhail Grigorenko for the third time in seven games. ... The Oilers failed to score a power-play goal for the first time in six games. ... Colorado is 2 for 47 on the power-play over the last 19 games.