Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon of Halifax, Nova Scotia, scored his second four-goal National Hockey League game of his career on Wednesday. He achieved this with the Avalanche’s 6-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
MacKinnon scored his first three goals in the second period. With the Avalanche leading 1-0 after one period, he scored on the power play at 2:39 of the middle frame against Cale Makar of Calgary, Alberta and Mikko Rantanen. MacKinnon then gave the Avalanche a 3-0 lead in the seventh minute of the second period on a power play from Makar and Rantanen. This was the game-winning goal. MacKinnon then gave Colorado a 4-0 lead at 9:16 of the second period against Rantanen. MacKinnon then gave the Avalanche a 6-1 lead at 16:14 of the third period through Ross Colton and Rantanen.
Two Canadians scored for the Avalanche. In addition to MacKinnon’s four goals, Makar scored once. MacKinnon also contributed an assist as he helped set up Rantanen in the third period. MacKinnon, who had five points, was one of two Canadians on the Avalanche with a multi-point game. The other was Makar, who had three points (one goal and two assists).
The other time MacKinnon recorded a four-goal game was on December 21, 2023, when the Avalanche won 6-4 against the Ottawa Senators. Prior to this season, MacKinnon had six three-goal hat tricks in his career.
In the 2023-24 season, MacKinnon recorded 30 goals and 52 assists for 82 points. He leads the NHL in assists and points. MacKinnon is also a +16 with 28 penalty minutes, 31 power play points, seven game-winning goals, 366 faceoff wins, 43 blocked shots, 33 hits, 22 takeaways and 50 giveaways.
The win puts the Avalanche tied for first place in the Central Division with the Winnipeg Jets. Both teams have 65 points. Colorado’s record is 31 wins, 14 regulation losses and three overtime losses.
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