Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon were a lethal pair once again on Tuesday night.
Rantanen scored two goals and provided two assists to continue his 10-game point streak, while MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 13 games as the Colorado Avalanche easily won 6-2 against the Calgary Flames.
View image in full screen
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougal
MacKinnon leads the league with 113 points (41 goals, 72 assists) this season, which is a career high. He is six points ahead of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.
“It’s just who he is,” said Avs coach Jared Bednar. “The desire to be the best player he can be, continuously improving his game in small areas, always looking to enhance even by a fraction in different areas to improve.”
The franchise record is 139 points set by Peter Stastny in 1981-82, while the team was based in Quebec. MacKinnon is on track for 138.
“If he keeps playing like he has, and I have no doubt he will, I think it’s a good chance,” said Rantanen, asked if his linemate can break the record.
During MacKinnon’s 13-game streak, he’s accumulated 28 points (9 goals, 19 assists). Rantanen, on the other hand, has 18 points (4 goals, 14 assists) over his 10-game hot streak.
For new Avs forward Casey Mittlestadt, who scored his first goal with the team, being teammates with the two of them sure beats playing against them.
“When you’re playing against (MacKinnon) or even watching him, it might make you a little angry just wondering how he does it,” said Mittlestadt.
“Mikko is the most underrated player in the league. Just the plays he and Nate make together are crazy. I’m happy to be on their side.”
Valeri Nichushkin, with a goal and two assists, and Josh Manson also scored for Colorado (41-20-5).
The Avs’ fourth win in a row pulls them into a tie with idle Winnipeg for second in the tightly contested Central Division. The Jets hold two games in hand. Dallas, which lost to Florida, leads the division by two points.
Daniil Miromanov, with his first goal as a Flame, and Walker Duehr scored for Calgary (31-29-5).
Following blowout losses to Florida and Carolina over the weekend, the Flames have now lost three consecutive games with a combined score of 18-5.
“We got three good lessons here, simple as that,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund.
“Everyone in this room’s gotta look at himself and be better.”
While the Avs were adding reinforcements last week, Calgary was doing the opposite, trading away veterans to acquire younger players.
Nazem Kadri understands that it’s going to take some time to gel.
“We’ve got a lot of new bodies, new faces, learning new systems. So, there’s going to be some crossover where chemistry is not great and there are some brain lapses,” said the Flames centre.
Although on this night, coach Ryan Huska singled out his veterans.
“The new faces, I don’t think, are the issue per se,” Huska said. “There’s guys on the ice that have been here for a number of years who still made mistakes over the last few games that they normally don’t make.”
New Colorado Avalanche goalie Justus Annunen stopped 25 shots and now has a 4-2-1 record.
Dan Vladar, who let in six goals on 35 shots in two periods, was taken out and ended up with an 8-9-2 record. Rookie Dustin Wolf then made three saves.
Even though the Flames were outshot 19-9, they were winning 2-1 after the first period. However, in the second period, Colorado scored five goals in a row.
Just 58 seconds after Manson tied the game at 4:52, MacKinnon scored the winning goal from a sharp angle after receiving a cross-ice pass from Nichushkin.
Nichushkin scored his 24th goal from a pass by Rantanen to make it 4-2, marking the third goal in three minutes.
Home debuts
Three Flames defensemen made their debut at the Saddledome. Miromanov and Nikita Okhotiuk were obtained through trades last week, while Joel Hanley was picked up on waivers. Okhotiuk played his first game for Calgary, filling in as the seventh defenseman after Andrei Kuzmenko was unable to play due to an upper body injury.
Wolf was called back to play.
Jacob Markstrom was supposed to start as the Flames' top goalie, but he was announced to be out with a lower-body injury in the afternoon. The team brought in Wolf from the Calgary Wranglers (AHL) to be the backup.
Up next
The Avalanche will continue their road trip by playing the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
The Flames will host the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
