MacKinnon leads Avalanche past Sabres
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Buffalo Sabres. Teenaged rookie Nathan MacKinnon showed again Saturday that he can more than hold his own in the NHL. The 18-year-old center collected a goal and two assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 7-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Pepsi Center.
The first pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, MacKinnon leads all rookies in scoring with 40 points (20 goals, 20 assists) in 54 games.
The Avalanche (35-14-5) have won three games in a row, are 9-2-1 in their past 11 games and have beaten the Sabres seven consecutive times since Dec. 4, 2005.
Buffalo (15-31-8), which is last in the NHL standings, failed to win its second consecutive game for the first time since they did it Dec. 17-19. The Sabres are 2-5-3 in their past 10 games.
MacKinnon's play more than made up for the absence of forwards Paul Stastny (ankle) and Alex Tanguay (knee). Centering a line with Gabriel Landeskog and PA Parenteau, who was a healthy scratch the previous two games, MacKinnon completed the first three-point game of his NHL career.
Landeskog and Jamie McGinn scored two goals apiece and Erik Johnson matched his career high for points in a game with three assists. Goalie Semyon Varlamov, who is on a 12-1-1 roll, made 27 saves.
The Avalanche have had trouble protecting third-period leads, but that wasn't the case Saturday. Colorado took a 5-1 lead into the third and added to it on goals by Landeskog and McGinn.
MacKinnon, who has three goals and four assists in a four-game point-scoring streak, set up goals by Tyson Barrie and Landeskog in the first period when the Avalanche took a 3-0 lead, and he scored his 20th goal of the season at 16:29 of the second on a power play to make it 5-1.
McGinn and Marc-Andre Cliche, who scored his first NHL goal in 49 games, also put pucks behind Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who was replaced by Jhonas Enroth to begin the third period.
The Avalanche took their first-period lead on goals by Barrie, McGinn on a power play and Landeskog.
Barrie scored at 7:37 after MacKinnon flubbed a shot. The puck went to Barrie, who scored from a sharp angle on the right side. Barrie has two goals and three assists in a four-game point-scoring streak.
McGinn tipped in Johnson's shot at 11:49 with 14 seconds remaining on a double-minor to Buffalo's Mike Weber for high-sticking Matt Duchene. McGinn was at the edge of the crease when he tipped the puck past Miller's left pad.
The Avalanche went 1-for-16 on power plays in a six-game span before McGinn scored.
Landeskog scored 58 seconds later at 12:47 to cap a 3-on-2 Avalanche rush. MacKinnon skated down the right side and waited until the last moment before sliding the puck to Landeskog driving down the middle. Landeskog, who has a goal and five assists in a five-game streak, scored into a half-open net.
Cliche, who played in one NHL game in his six seasons with the Los Angeles Kings organization, scored at 6:05 of the second period for a 4-0 lead. After taking a carom off the end boards, Patrick Bordeleau passed through the goalmouth to Cliche, who tucked the puck inside the right post.
The Sabres got on the board at 11:45 on a power-play goal by Matt D'Agostini, who put in the rebound of Tyler Ennis' shot.
MacKinnon answered off a drop pass by Johnson. Varlamov made a save and got the puck to Johnson, who weaved into the Sabres end and passed the puck to MacKinnon, who was trailing. MacKinnon fired a shot behind Miller from the high slot.
Landeskog increased the lead to 6-1 at 7:36 of the third period with a shot past Enroth from the left circle. McGinn scored into a wide-open net at 10:07 off a pass from Ryan O'Reilly.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
02/02/2014 - 00:00
