DENVER — Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 15 games to help the Avalanche to their third victory in four games on Sunday. MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, matching his career-high point streak as Colorado crushed the visiting San Jose Sharks 6-2.

MacKinnon has 8 goals and 27 points during the stretch. He also has a point in each of the first 16 games at Ball Arena this season. Colorado’s superstar center is second in the NHL’s points race. His 47 points are five back of the leader (Nikita Kucherov, 52).

“I feel very clear. The game feels like it’s slow, which is always a good feeling,” MacKinnon said. “Obviously doing a lot of work away from the rink that no one sees and it’s paying off right now. I just trying to do my job and contribute.”

The Avs are 12-4-0 at Ball Arena, which ties the Vancouver Canucks for the most wins on home ice. Their entire top line found the back of the net as both Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin had goals on plays set up by MacKinnon. Miles Wood and Ryan Johansen also scored. Superstar defenseman Cale Makar was absent for the second straight game with a lower-body injury. Coming off a brutal 6-2 loss to Winnipeg the prior night, the Avs were able to improve to 2-2-0 this season without Makar. Devon Toews was again paired with Josh Manson on the top pair in Makar’s absence.

The team is not scheduled to practice on Monday before flying to Chicago for a game against the Blackhawks on Tuesday. There likely won’t be an update on Makar’s status until then.

“He’s day to day. Doing good but he’s got a nagging injury, lower body, we don’t want to make it get worse,” head coach Jared Bednar said of Makar’s status. “It’s the same thing that kept him out last week for a couple games.”

Early in the first period, former Av Jacob MacDonald flattened Sam Malinski into the boards. After the pay was reviewed, MacDonald was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct. Malinski went down the tunnel for repairs before returning later in the period. On the ensuing lengthy power play, the Avs capitalized with 29 seconds remaining. MacKinnon sent a pass to Jonathan Drouin, who found Valeri Nichushkin for the power-play goal.

Nichushkin’s tally salvaged what started as a poor showing on the man advantage. Colorado had just one shot in the first four minutes and was struggling to set up in the offensive zone.

“Made you forget that four minutes we had. That was not pretty,” Droun said following his two assist performance. “That was our worst power play all year and just to get that one, the end of that power play, kind of forget what we were doing for four minutes there and get the momentum for our team.”

The Avs later got another power play and added to their lead. This time it was Rantanen setting up in front of goalie MacKenzie Blackwood and redirecting a well-placed pass from MacKinnon into the back of the net. Rantanen’s goal was his third in four games after snapping out of a nine-game goal-less drought,

Before the end of the first, Wood fired a shot from the circle over the shoulder of Blackwood to make it 3-0. It’s the second straight home game where Colorado gained a three-goal lead in the opening period.

“It was a decent game tonight. Obviously, you know, not a ton of sleep and guys battled hard,” MacKinnon said. “We just got a few games before Christmas break. So hopefully we could get a few wins here.

MacKinnon eventually scored to make it 4-0 and later added an empty netter. After teaming up with Nichushkin for an aggressive forecheck, MacKinnon took the puck away from a Sharks defender before they exited the zone and fired it on goal. The puck beat the goalie but hit the post before bouncing in off Blackwood’s arm.

Alexandar Georgiev was given the nod after sitting for three of the last four games. The Avalanche’s starting goalie stopped all seven shots he faced in the opening period. He faced seven more in the second but surrendered a power-play goal to Tomas Hertl off a redirect. Georgiev finished with 27 saves as both teams had 29 shots on goal. It’s his 15th win of the season, which is good for second most in the NHL.

“I thought he was fantastic,” Bednar said of Georgiev.

“Just to get his confidence back is huge,” Drouin added.