Mackinnon's home point streak at 23

[Brewin Flames]

MacKinnon extends home point streak to 23, Avalanche shut out Golden Knights

Ties Sakic for franchise record, Georgiev makes 25 saves for Colorado

 

Recap: Golden Knights at Avalanche 1.10.24

ByRyan Boulding

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his season-opening home point streak to 23 games for the Colorado Avalanche in a 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

 

MacKinnon tied Joe Sakic (2000-01) for the longest home point streak at any point in a season in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history, and he tied Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers in 1983-84) and Phil Esposito (Boston Bruins in 1973-74) for the third-longest home point streak from the start of a season in NHL history.

 

“It's insane to think about, and I still don't even know if he gets enough credit for how much he plays,” Colorado forward Logan O'Connor said. “He’s playing the best matchups every night. And just the pace he plays with, it's a different speed with him out there.

 

So, the point streak is pretty unbelievable.

 

“He's sort of put the team on his back here for a long stretch this whole year, I guess, so it's been awesome to see him get rewarded. He's a guy that we can rely on every single night. He's a horse out there, and he's easy to follow when he's doing all the right things.”

 

 

Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves, Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for the Avalanche (27-12-3), who have won eight of their past 10 games (8-1-1).

 

“I just think that the last couple of games, our commitment to check and play the right way has been really good,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “This is exactly how I want our team to be.

 

I don't want us like giving up a lot of chances, and when we have a big breakdown, we need our goalie to make a save. It's the difference between winning and losing, and tonight [Georgiev] was perfect in that regard.”

 

Jiri Patera made 32 saves for the Golden Knights (23-13-5), who went 0-for-4 on the power play and lost for the eighth time in 11 games. Adin Hill was originally expected to start in goal but missed his ninth straight game with a lower-body injury.

 

Vegas hosts Boston on Thursday.

 

“Not good enough, obviously, to beat a very good hockey club. Didn't think we were on our toes,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Had pockets of some good hockey, but not good enough. Special teams are a problem again; got outplayed on those.

 

“I liked Patera's game. Got kind of thrown in at the last minute [and] did a great job for us. Gave us a chance to win.”

 

Nichushkin scored a power-play goal to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 19:46 of the first period, one-timing Rantanen’s centering pass under the blocker of Patera.

 

Nichushkin scored again on the power play at 11:44 of the second period, converting another Rantanen pass from the top of the crease.

 

“That five-man unit right now, I mean they're clicking pretty good,” O’Connor said. “It's insane. Unfortunately, we have to go up against them every morning skate, and sometimes it can be pretty difficult, but it makes us better at the same time.”

 

Colorado outshot Vegas 14-5 in the second.

 

O’Connor scored with a slap shot from just inside the blue line that deflected off the stick of Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague at 9:20 of the third period for the 3-0 final.

 

“This time of the year, you’ve got to find way to score goals in every possible way,” Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “I think we’ve got to, as a group collectively, find a way to score more goals in front of the net. Hard to win when you don't score.

 

“I know they had the two power-play goals. We didn't [get] one on the power play. Special teams kind of let us down.”