Mack ends drought, Avs blank Isles
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs New York Islanders.Nathan MacKinnon ended his season-opening 10-game drought with two goals Thursday to support goalie Semyon Varlamov, who made 40 saves in the Colorado Avalanche's 5-0 win against the New York Islanders at Pepsi Center.
This was hardly the way the Islanders wanted to open a five-game trip through the rugged Western Conference.
New York, which was averaging 3.78 goals per game, has lost two games in a row and slipped into second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Avalanche have collected a point in five consecutive games (2-0-3). They killed six New York power plays, extending their streak to 17 in a row over four games.
MacKinnon scored his first goals of the season in the second period when the Avalanche scored three times to grab a 4-0 lead.
The Avalanche padded their lead at 13:40 of the third on a goal by Erik Johnson, who scored from the right point on Colorado's first shot of the period.
MacKinnon, last season's Calder Trophy winner, scored his first goal on a power play at 3:25 of the second after Gabriel Landeskog drove to the net for a shot that Islanders goalie Chad Johnson stopped. Erik Johnson swept the rebound to MacKinnon to the left of the crease during a scramble in front, and MacKinnon waited for Chad Johnson to go down and stack his pads before shooting the puck over him into the net.
It was the Avalanche's fifth power-play goal in a five-game stretch.
Marc-Andre Cliche scored his first goal at 8:59 following some work around the net by Maxime Talbot and Cody McLeod. Cliche was at the left side of the net when he found an opening between the near post and Johnson's right pad.
MacKinnon made it 4-0 at 10:14. Jarome Iginla was along the right-wing boards when he fended off a check by New York defenseman Calvin de Haan and passed to MacKinnon, who scored while driving to the net.
Varlamov made 17 saves in the second period.
McLeod gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 2:34 of the opening period on the first shot of the game. Matt Duchene was behind the net when he passed to McLeod near the right post for a shot that got behind Johnson for his first goal of the season.
The Islanders' John Tavares had two good scoring chances in the opening period. He took a shot from low in the right circle that Varlamov stopped at 6:02 and he fired a shot off the left goal post with two seconds left in the period on a power play.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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31/10/2014 - 06:00
