Nathan MacKinnon scored four goals, including the 300th of his career, for his fifth career hat trick as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ottawa Senators 6-4 in Denver on Thursday night.
MacKinnon also had an assist and extended his point streak to 17 games, which matches his home point streak. He is the first Avalanche player to have a four-goal game since the team moved to Denver and the fifth player in franchise history (including the Quebec Nordiques) to reach the 300-goal mark.
Mikko Rantanen scored twice, Valeri Nichushkin had three assists, Cale Makar had two assists in his return and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 41 shots for Colorado.
Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist, while Josh Norris, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Ridly Greig also scored and Joonas Korpisalo had 33 saves for Ottawa.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead when MacKinnon scored on the power play 2:43 into the game.
Ottawa responded on its power play late in the first period when the puck went out to Norris in the right circle and he scored into an open net at 15:13, his 11th of the season.
Just 15 seconds later, Greig backhanded a loose puck by Georgiev to make it 2-1 on his fourth of the season.
Colorado got even three minutes later when MacKinnon scored his 300th career goal on a wrister to make it 2-2.
The Senators took the lead again in the second when Bernard-Docker took a shot from the point that deflected off the blade of Makar’s stick and through Georgiev’s pads at 1:32. It was his second of the season.
Ottawa went ahead 4-2 on Batherson’s goal at 14:47, his 11th goal of the season.
The Avalanche got one back late in the second when Rantanen beat Korpisalo with a sharp-angle shot on the power play at 19:43.
MacKinnon tied it again with another power-play goal at 6:16 of the third. The Senators unsuccessfully challenged for offsides, giving Colorado another power play, and Rantanen scored at 7:10 to make it 5-4, his 17th of the season.
Korpisalo came off for an extra skater with a minute left and MacKinnon scored into the empty net at 19:37. It was his team-leading 18th of the season.
–Field Level Media
