Nathan MacKinnon had his most productive night of the season to pull the Colorado Avalanche out of a funk, but the club’s extraordinary injury crisis may have somehow reached a new level.
MacKinnon had his first five-point game of the season Tuesday night and the Avs dominated the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena in a 6-3 victory where the scoreline flattered the visitors. While the win snapped a three-game losing skid, Cale Makar was injured during the second period and played only one brief shift in the third.
Makar was injured during a power play midway through the second period. He did not play in the final 10:08 of the second period, then took one 29-second shift in the opening two minutes of the third period. He stayed on the bench through the first media timeout, then tested the injury again during the break before heading to the locker room.
MacKinnon, who set a career high with five assists, had a hand in both of Colorado’s first-period goals, but both came away from his linemates. After Chris Wagner created some chaos in his first shift of the game, MacKinnon put the puck around Eeli Tolvanen near the offensive blue line to create some open space and then found Wagner with a cross-ice pass for a shot from the right circle and his first goal of the season at 2:28.
After the Kraken leveled the score at 12:58, rookie Ivan Ivan scored his third goal of the season to put Colorado back in front 74 seconds later. Ivan sent a pass to fellow first-year forward Nikolai Kovalenko, who took the puck to the net for a backhanded chance. Ivan was there to clean up the rebound, and he’s now second among all rookies in goals behind Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov.
One year after MacKinnon’s consistency and multiple long-point streaks were part of his MVP-winning resume, MacKinnon also has a point in all 13 games this season.
Seattle scored 23 seconds into the second period after a turnover by Logan O’Connor on his own end. At that point, the Kraken had two goals on six shots — and only three scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Avalanche power play has been great all season, and it struck twice to help Colorado regain control.
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Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
