MacKinnon's Four-Point Night Leads Avalanche to 5-1 Win Against Kraken

Scoring in Seattle

Nathan MacKinnon posted a goal and three assists to help the Avalanche defeat the Seattle Kraken 5-1 at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday. Martin Necas, Nicolas Roy, Nazem Kadri and Joel Kiviranta all added tallies for the Avs, while Devon Toews posted two assists. In net for the Avalanche, Scott Wedgewood stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced and made several fantastic saves.

"I love the way he defended tonight," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said about MacKinnon's game on Thursday. "He was stripping guys of pucks and getting physical at times in the [defensive] zone and getting us started. But, it just seemed like every time he got the puck, he knew where it was going and he knew where the open man was. A lot of times that was Marty (Necas) with speed, and they had good chemistry tonight."

With the win, the Avalanche improved to 44-11-9.

"Great start," Bednar said about the game. "Top guys were buzzing early and making a bunch of plays and putting a few in the back of the net. So that kind of helped our team relax a little bit."

How It Happened

Necas opened the scoring at 3:45 of the opening frame and notched his first 30-goal campaign with a shot from the right doorstep set up by MacKinnon's cross-ice feed that was deflected by Toews in the slot.

Colorado doubled its lead at 12:54 of the first period when MacKinnon scored his 44th goal of the season when his pass from the right goal line deflected off the right skate of Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson and into the net.

Roy gave the Avs a 3-0 lead on the power play at 18:48 of the first period with his seventh goal of the season via a shot from the doorstep. With the secondary assist on the goal, MacKinnon posted the 174th multi-assist game of his career and passed Peter Stastny for the second-most such contests in franchise history.

Ryker Evans put the Kraken on the board and made it a 3-1 game with a shorthanded goal at 13:36 of the second period via a shot from the slot.

The Avalanche took a 4-1 lead at 17:11 of the middle frame when Kadri scored his 13th goal of the season and first since being acquired by Colorado via a deflection from the slot on Sam Malinski's right-point one-timer.

Kiviranta gave the Avs a 5-1 lead at 12:41 of the third period with his third goal of the season via a net-front redirection on Josh Manson's left-point one-timer.

Next Up

The Avalanche concludes its road trip on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets at 2 p.m. MT on Altitude, Altitude+ and Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM.