- Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists in a 6-3 Avalanche win over the Lightning
- It was his second four-point game in a week, and he now has 20 points in 11 games
- Read below for Fedor Svechkov’s baseball-style goal and what snapped the Avs’ skid
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists as the Avalanche beat the Lightning 6-3 at Ball Arena on Friday night.
It is the second time in eight days he has put up four points. He did the same thing a week earlier in a 5-2 win over the Penguins, and he has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) through 11 games.
Colorado needed it. The Avalanche came in having lost two straight on the road, and Tampa Bay had won three in a row. MacKinnon set up Devon Toews and Artturi Lehkonen before adding a goal of his own.
Toews opened the scoring 1:08 into the game, finishing a cross-ice feed from Martin Necas after MacKinnon started the sequence. Nazem Kadri made it 2-0 on the power play at 5:52 for his first goal of the season.
Fedor Svechkov made it 3-0 just 24 seconds into the second period, and this one was a little different. His pass attempt across to T.J. Hughes got deflected into the air by Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Svechkov batted it in with a baseball swing. It came on the opening night of the World Series, so the comparison wrote itself. Watch the goal:
Jake Guentzel pulled the Lightning back within two, scoring twice in the game, and Lehkonen restored the three-goal lead at 13:57 of the second off a MacKinnon pass from behind the net.
MacKinnon got his own goal at 4:18 of the third. Lehkonen sprung him through the neutral zone, and he used his speed to open up space before beating Vasilevskiy short side with a wrist shot. Here is the fourth point of his night:
Charle-Edouard D’Astous cut it to 5-3 late, but Necas sealed the win with an empty-netter. He finished with a goal and two assists. Mackenzie Blackwood made 31 saves for the Avalanche, who improved to 6-4-1.
Nikita Kucherov was held off the scoresheet, so he remains one point away from passing Steven Stamkos as the Lightning’s all-time points leader. Tampa Bay (7-3-0) visits Utah on Saturday, while Colorado is at Nashville on Sunday.
