{"id":281319,"date":"2024-04-11T10:26:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T15:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=281319"},"modified":"2024-04-11T16:04:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T21:04:05","slug":"avalanche-beat-minnesota-wild-5-to-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=281319","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Beat Minnesota Wild 5 To 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Denver –<\/strong>\u00a0Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>\u00a0scored a hat trick, including his 50th goal of the season, and the Colorado Avalanche won 5-2 against the Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKinnon also had an assist, giving him 137 points (51 goals, 86 assists) this season, two behind Nikita Kucherov<\/a> of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the NHL lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never thought in my life I’d score 50, honestly. I never really thought I would,\u201d MacKinnon said. \u201cIt feels good, obviously. A lot of amazing plays from everybody all season, a lot of empty nets, a lot of hard work from the whole lineup. I think it’s a team achievement, honestly. It’s a team sport. Obviously, it\u2019s tough to get there. You can’t do it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Boldy<\/a> had a goal and an assist, Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> scored, and Filip Gustavsson<\/a> made 27 saves for the Wild (37-32-9), who were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s not a very fun position to be in. We’ve strung together some good games. Obviously, tonight’s tough,\u201d Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian said. \u201cThey’re a good team, and when you give, obviously, a player like MacKinnon [space], I mean he can take over a game. And he showed tonight why he’s a world-class player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ll compete right to the end. We’re not going to sit here and make excuses or play the what if game. We have to get ready to play against Vegas (on Friday). It’s the pride, it’s the culture. That’s the stuff you’re playing for, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lehkonen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:33 of the first period, one-timing MacKinnon\u2019s centering pass from just below the left hash marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 8:38 when he skated through Bogosian and Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin before scoring short side on Gustavsson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were laughing, actually, after his first goal. I thought we were playing in Halifax [again], to be honest,\u201d Drouin said. \u201cI’ve seen those breakout goals where he just blows by the [defensemen] and the [defense] does\u2019t even stand a chance. He had his legs tonight, for sure, and he made it count.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaprizov cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 10:14, putting in his own rebound after Georgiev sticked aside his initial attempt on a wraparound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe’s played great for us, obviously. That’s the competitive edge that we’re looking for, and he can drive a team,\u201d Bogosian said. \u201cThere’s certain players that can drive teams. Obviously, MacKinnon does that for them, and Kirill does that for us. He’s been playing awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boldy tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 19:40 when he tipped in a centering pass from Mats Zuccarello at the top of the crease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makar put the Avalanche back in front 3-2 at 6:15 of the second. He skated across the blue line to the left point before turning and scoring with a wrist shot that beat Gustavsson far side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKinnon scored No. 50 to make it 4-2 at 14:50. He sped around Wild defenseman Brock Faber in the neutral zone and skated in alone before scoring with a wrist shot blocker side from the right dot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKinnon then completed the hat trick to make it 5-2 at 19:08, again using his speed to split the defensemen in the neutral zone before deking Gustavsson and scoring past his glove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn elite player made some elite plays tonight,\u201d Minnesota coach John Hynes said. \u201cI think you look at the other components of the game, that was a huge difference. So, I’m not down on the team or whatnot. I don’t like the fact that we lost the game, but we got to continue to compete hard and play and try to find ways to win. We were right in the game there and MacKinnon makes some game-breaking plays. That’s what makes him such a dangerous player, and he was able to capitalize on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver –\u00a0Nathan MacKinnon\u00a0scored a hat trick, including his 50th goal of the season, and the Colorado Avalanche won 5-2 against the Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena on Tuesday. MacKinnon also had an assist, giving him 137 points (51 goals, 86 assists) this season, two behind Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":274354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281341,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281319\/revisions\/281341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}