AVALANCHE OF GOALS BURIES BLACKHAWKS
Rantanen, Mackinnon have two goals, three points apiece
Hours before he was to celebrate his 21st birthday, winger Mikko Rantanen on Saturday produced one of the best games of his infant NHL career. His centerman, 22-year-old Nathan Mackinnon, had an equally impressive performance as the Avalanche’s two young stars led a resounding bounce-back effort in the wake of Friday’s embarrassing 7-0 loss in Las Vegas against the expansion Golden Knights.
Rantanen and Mackinnon each had two goals and three points as Colorado built a fivegoal lead and held on for a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Pepsi Center. Winger Rocco Grimaldi, who was called up from the American Hockey League on Saturday morning, also had a big game by assisting on the Avs’ fifth goal and scoring the sixth.
“We were challenged this morning by our team, some of the assistant coaches, about being more aggressive,” Mackinnon said. “And they’re right. We’re younger and faster, and we’re the underdog. Tonight, no one expected us to win. And we use that fire, and it’s big for us. Friday was a bit embarrassing.”
Gabe Landeskog was the left wing on Mackinnon’s line. Landeskog had just one assist but played as well as anyone, creating time and space for his linemates.
“It was a big game for us. I think we had good chemistry with our line and we working their D down low, and that’s what we want to do,” Rantanen said. “Our best game 5-on-5. It was a big bounce back. We wanted a big bounce back and that’s what we did.”
The bipartisan crowd saw the Avs improve to 6-5 and the Blackhawks fall to 5-5-2 with their third consecutive defeat. Colorado was blown out by Vegas on Friday, three days after the Golden Knights defeated the visiting Blackhawks 4-2.
Colorado’s win was its second consecutive over a Central Division foe, after losing its first three. The Avs don’t play again until Thursday, at home against Carolina.
Mackinnon assisted on Rantanen’s chip-in goal 3:24 into the game and the Avs took command with power-play goals at 15:20 and 19:56 of the first period. First, Mackinnon took a back-pass from Alex Kerfoot and beat goalie Anton Forsberg with an electric shot inside the near post. And then Rantanen capped a good sequence by Mackinnon by back-handing the puck past Forsberg from the side of the net. Mackinnon didn’t get an assist on the goal, but Rantanen capitalized on his rebound, although the puck squirted through the crease before Rantanen handled it.
Mackinnon made it 4-0 just 2:56 into the second period and Sven Andrigetto extended it to 5-0 at 6:44, at which time Forsberg was pulled in favor of Corey Crawford.
The Avs played poorly the rest of the second period. Chicago goals by Nick Schmaltz and Artem Anisimov got the Blackhawks to within 5-2. Anisimov’s goal came on a 2-on-1 rush, with Colorado defenseman Patrik Nemeth getting caught in the offensive zone.
But Grimaldi redirected an Erik Johnson shot past Crawford at 8:45 of the third period as Colorado regained its four-goal lead.
Jonathan Bernier had 39 saves in the win for Colorado.
“Complete team effort, but our big guns led the charge,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “That line—Land esko g-mack in non ran tan en—they were flying right out of the gates. They wanted to make sure we got off to the right foot and they led us to victory.”