Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and assisted on another, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks in NHL action Monday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Mikko Rantanen also scored for the winners (32-24-5), while Daniel Sedin scored the lone goal for Vancouver (24-31-7).
Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves for the Avs, earning himself the victory, while Jacob Markstrom stopped all but two of the 27 shots faced for the Canucks in the loss.
Colorado opened the scoring with 24 seconds left in the first period on their third power play of the game. Rantanen scored his 20th goal the season on a one-timer off a feed from MacKinnon to put the Canucks down by one.
Eleven minutes into into the second period, Vancouver challenged a goal from Rantanen who put it past Markstrom on a behind the net pass from Mackinnon. The goal was overturned after the referees agreed Gabriel Landeskog interfered with Markstrom.
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Midway through the third period, Vancouver’s Jake Virtanen rifled a shot off of the post on a breakaway opportunity.
Immediately after the play, MacKinnon came up along the boards past Canucks defenceman Troy Stetcher and put it short side under the blocker of Markstrom for the game’s second goal.
With the Canucks net empty, Daniel Sedin scored his 19th goal of the season off a pass from Alex Edler, to bring the Canucks within one but it wasn’t enough.
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Colorado made it 3-1, sealing the win after MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game, and 28th on the season.
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GAME NOTES:
Vancouver: Alex Edler is two points away from tying Mattias Ohlund for most points by a Canucks defenceman all-time… Loui Eriksson did not play after suffering an injury in Sunday night’s game… Canucks played without forward Thomas Vanek was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forwards Tyler Motte and Jussi Jokinen earlier in the day… Defenceman Philip Holm, who made his NHL debut against the Coyotes on Sunday, was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights for forward Brendan Leipsic.
Colorado: Victoria’s Tyson Barrie had an assist on the night… Rantanen finished a goal and two assists and MacKinnon had nine shots on goal… Vancouver native Alex Kerfoot was held pointless with two penalty minutes.
