Recap: MacKinnon hits 30-goal mark as Avalanche rout Minnesota

The Colorado Avalanche saw the Minnesota Wild for the second time this regular season, and for the first time since the Wild acquired Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks. Ultimately, the Avs would be the ones to come out on top, by a final score of 5-1 with goals from Martin Nečas, Cale Makar, Brock Nelson and two from Nathan MacKinnon.

Let’s take a look at all the action from tonight!

First Period

The Avs would score the first and only goal in this period, as Martin Necas would bury a gorgeous feed from Cale Makar. Colorado had some really solid offensive zone pressure leading up to this goal, and as Makar came flying into the zone down the boards, Necas was able to find a soft spot on the ice, and Makar was able to find him with a great feed, and Necas made no mistake for the 1-0 lead.

Second Period

It’s not exactly a secret that the Colorado power play has been severely struggling this season, but despite that, the Avs were able to convert twice on the man-advantage in this period. First, it would be Nathan MacKinnon just rocketing the puck past Jesper Wallstedt on the power play. The Avs were able to move the puck well, and MacKinnon just buried it past the goalie.

After that, Ryan Hartman would head off for a double-minor, and the Avs were able to convert on that opportunity as well. Cale Makar just beat Wallstedt clean on this, as he walked down to the top of the circles, and went bar-down on this goal. After two periods Colorado held a commanding 3-0 lead.

Third Period

Minnesota would not go quietly, however, and they would get a goal back within the first five minutes of the beginning of third period. Ryan Hartman was camped right down by the Colorado net, and he was able to find a loose puck and put it passed Mackenzie Blackwood.

That would ultimately be the only life Minnesota would have in this game, as Brock Nelson would score late to really put this game away for the Avs. Sam Girard was able to find him with a beautiful cross-ice pass, and Nelson just put an absolute rocket of a shot past Wallstedt to make it 4-1 in Colorado’s favor.

Nathan MacKinnon would score his second goal of the night on an empty net, and he officially hit the 30-goal mark on the season, for the final score of 5-1.

Takeaways

This might’ve been one of the best games I’ve seen Colorado play all season so far. I feel like in a lot of their overtime and/or shootout losses earlier this year, such as the shootout loss to Minnesota earlier this season, you can look at those and say “they played really well, but just ran into a really good goalie”, and tonight was a game where that didn’t happen. Jesper Wallsted has become one of the stories of the NHL season so far. He’s an incredibly good goalie, but Colorado was able to win this game despite that fact here tonight instead of running into a really good goalie yet again. While I’m still not sold on the powerplay being good just yet because of how it’s looked all year up till this point, it was super encouraging to watch them convert twice on the man-advantage here tonight. Hopefully, that’s a trend that continues.

A couple more quick notes to end the takeaways section: Nathan MacKinnon is just so good, and he continues to show why he’s one of the best players in the NHL on a nightly basis. He becomes the first player in the NHL to hit the 30-goal mark on the season, and is just playing unbelievable hockey so far. Also, I’m officially on the Brock Nelson train; he’s silently been so good for the Avs in my opinion, and had himself another three-point night tonight. It’s so nice to have a second-line center that can score and contribute to goals on a pretty regular basis, and he certainly seems to have found his game after settling in earlier this season.

Upcoming

Next up, the Avalanche head home to take on the Utah Mammoth for one last game before the NHL holiday break. Puck drop will be at 7:00 p.m. MT.