Nathan MacKinnon added two goals and an assist to his point total for the year in Colorado’s 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks Thursday night.
MacKinnon helped extend both the Avs win streak as well as his personal point streak to eight games as he now has 22 goals and 35 assists this season.
“We are playing some good hockey,” MacKinnon said following the game. “This eight-streak obviously isn’t luck. We’re a good team and hopefully, we can continue this.”
MacKinnon scored two of Colorado’s three first-period goals which gave the Avalanche a 3-0 lead heading into the dressing room after one. The second of MacKinnon’s goals came on the power play which ties his career-high for power-play goals in a season with eight.
“When five-on-five goes well, the power play is going to feel better,” MacKinnon commented on the power play success. “You don’t put as much pressure on yourself when you’re producing. It’s tough when you’re gripping the stick tight — like last year, not scoring any goals so you feel like you have to.”
“We’re confident out there, and we seem to have some good chemistry as well.”
Both teams were able to score in the second period and Colorado began the third with a 4-1 lead.
The Sharks made Colorado fight hard for the victory in the final third of the game as they would score twice on 21 shots in their late push.
Avs goaltender Jonathan Bernier had 45 saves in the victory — 24 of which were on the penalty kill — but wasn’t pleased with his team’s play overall saying, “I’m happy with the two points, but our effort wasn’t there.”
“It could have been a lot easier, to be honest. We didn’t stick to our gameplan. We tried to be fancy a little bit when we got the lead and we didn’t cycle the puck in their zone to kill some time and then they came on the rush,” Bernier continued.
“Sometimes you can’t play a perfect game, but you’ve got to learn from it.”
The Avalanche killed all seven of San Jose’s power-play chances but allowed 15 shots on goal in the third while short-handed. Bernier had to make a few game-saving stops to keep the Avalanche afloat.
“They have a good team, especially on the power play, they have some really good players that are patient,” Bernier said. “It was a tough night for our PK tonight.”
“I thought that was our probably our toughest test on the PK in a while and they made some good plays but we found a way to win.”
At 16:46 into the third, shortly after Bernier shut the door on some dangerous chances from the Sharks, Matt Nieto put the nail in the coffin against his former team scoring the fifth and final goal of the night, good for his eighth of the season.
“It definitely felt good, especially at that moment in the game,” Nieto recollected. “It’s a tight game, they are pushing, they only need one to tie it. It was kind of an insurance goal so yeah, it was nice.”
The win gave Colorado its third eight-game win streak in its history and first since the 2005-06 season. The Avalanche have had only two win streaks that exceeded eight games when they won nine in 2000-01 and twelve in 1998-99.
Colorado hosts the New York Rangers in a matinee game Saturday afternoon then departs on a six-game road trip — five of which against Canadian teams.
Puckdrop Saturday afternoon will be at 1 PM MST.