Great eight for Avs
MacKinnon scores twice as red-hot Colorado stretches win streak even longer
Extending its winning streak to eight games seemed like a sure thing 22 minutes into the game Thursday night, but the Avalanche had to scratch and claw for it after surviving an impressive comeback by the San Jose Sharks at the Pepsi Center.
Behind Nathan MacKinnon’s two goals and eighth threepoint performance of his remarkable season, the Avs prevailed 5-3 to for their eighth consecutive win, the thirdlongest streak in club history.
MacKinnon’s right winger, Mikko Rantanen, also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists; and second-line left wing Matt Nieto had a goal and an assist. Nieto’s goal at 16:46 of the third period stopped the bleeding for Colorado, which led 4-0 early but allowed three consecutive goals in the second half of the game.
“It is tough mentally to play when it’s 4-0, 4-1, but we’ll get better at that,” MacKinnon said. “They’re a really good team and have some legends over there. They’re going to get their chances, but we just can’t give them to them. I thought myself and a few other guys kind of handed chances to them, whether they were turnovers or bad puck decisions. But when we were up just 4-3, we didn’t panic.”
Goalie Jonathan Bernier (44 saves) was outstanding to extend his winning streak to seven games, making some of his best saves to prevent San Jose from getting its fourth goal and tying it up. The Sharks were 0-of-7 on the power play, but they fed off Colorado’s penalties to dominate the second half of the game.
“We won the first half of the game. They won the second half and our goalie was a differencemaker tonight,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said.
Bernier, who has technically been playing for the injured Semyon Varlamov, can’t recall if he previously won seven straight games in his career —
primarily because he doesn’t usually start that many consecutive games. “The thing is, even when you get rolling, even when I was in Toronto and playing a lot, you usually get a rest,” he said. “But now Varly’s not there, so it’s kind of nice I get to be on the roll and play every night. It feels good.”
The Avs, who took their 4-0 lead just 1:34 into the second period, produced only 16 shots through two periods. But they nevertheless controlled the first half of the game by burying their chances and avoided getting hemmed in their own zone. It was an end-to-end affair, but Colorado was more opportunistic.
MacKinnon scored 7:03 and 8:01 into the game, the latter on the power play with a one-time slap shot from pointman Sam Girard. Center Carl Soderberg made it 3-0 at 18:14 to cap a nifty behind-the-net play by Nieto. And Rantanen redirected the puck off his body 1:34 into the second frame. MacKinnon touched the puck with his stick before it caromed in off Rantanen.
If Colorado did anything wrong in the first 40 minutes, it was taking four penalties. The third one, by rookie forward Alex Kerfoot, led to San Jose’s goal at 9:44 of the second period. The goal came at the same time Kerfoot was released from the box, so it wasn’t a power-play goal, but Kerfoot’s interference minor hurt nonetheless.
After San Jose scored two quick goals to begin the third period, Colorado continued to take penalties, and the ice became tilted in San Jose’s favor. The Sharks received goals from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Joe Thornton at 29 seconds and 4:53, respectively, of the final frame.