MacKinnon gets 400th goal, Avalanche cruise past Blues

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, including his 400th career NHL goal, and had two assists to help the Colorado Avalanche win their ninth straight game, 6-1 against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

MacKinnon became the third player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to reach the mark, joining Joe Sakic (625) and Michel Goulet (456).

“I really didn't ever expect to be here, but it's fun,” MacKinnon said. “Obviously, I’m just trying to be the best player I can for this team. We got a [Stanley Cup] three years ago, and it’d be nice to get another one.”

Valeri Nichushkin scored a hat trick, and Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (30-2-7), who have won 15 consecutive games at home and are 11-0-1 in their past 12 overall. Josh Manson had two assists, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 12 saves.

“If you could bottle that. I'm just going to put it on our guys again. It's just preparation and being ready and fired up to play,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of the fast start. “You couldn't have drawn it up any better. It was pace, and execution was excellent.

“It was a great start. It carried us through the whole game.”

Dalibor Dvorsky scored, and Jordan Binnington made 37 saves for the Blues (15-18-8), who have lost two straight and are 2-3-0 in their past five games.

“We definitely saw in the first 10 minutes why they only have two regulation losses in [39] games,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “We got to start on time. Our preparation, our practices got to start on time. It's a habit. We haven't developed the necessary habits to be able to start on time regularly.”

Nichushkin scored to make it 1-0 Colorado at 1:00 of the first period. He drove the net from the right dot and loosed a shot, picked up his own rebound off the right leg pad with his right skate, kicked it behind himself while moving backward into the left circle, and tossed a wrist shot on net past a scrambling Binnington.

Cale Makar appeared to have extended the lead to 2-0 with a wrist shot from the right point that went through a screen at 2:22 of the period, but St. Louis successfully challenged the play for goaltender interference. Video review determined MacKinnon made contact with Binnington during the sequence.

MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 3:13 when he trapped a pass from Manson at the left post and then fired a backhand past the right leg of Binnington for his 400th goal.

“This season's been great, but we haven't had a start like that, and that was a lot of fun,” MacKinnon said. “It's not hard to play, but you're up 5-0. I wish we got the shutout for [Blackwood], but it is what it is.

“I thought we played a great game overall.”

Nichushkin scored 13 seconds later to make it 3-0 at 3:26 when he cleaned up the rebound of Manson’s point shot at the right side of the crease. Binnington made the initial save but the puck caromed to Nichushkin for the snap shot over the left leg.

“He was excellent tonight. A couple games ago, I just felt like he started skating more with the puck and just powering through guys,” Bednar said. “I was really happy to see it because he's been working real hard lately.”

MacKinnon scored again to make it 4-0 with a one-timer from the left dot at 4:39. Necas passed it over to him from the high slot to set up the play.

Nelson scored a power-play goal to make it 5-0 at 9:41 of the second period. He one-timed Makar’s pass short side from just above the right dot.

“Tonight we wanted to make sure we had a fast start, and that was a really fast start,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “First period was really good, and then we were able to keep that momentum as well. I thought it was a real strong effort overall, through the whole top to bottom, all the way through.”

Dvorsky cut it to 5-1 at 14:32 of the third period when his one-timer from the right half-wall went far side through traffic.

“Especially against this team, we need to be more disciplined, play tighter. I think the last 10 minutes of the first period, we clawed back a little bit,” Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist said. “We need to build our game. We need to focus on us. [Tonight] wasn’t good enough, obviously.”

Nichushkin completed the hat trick at 16:06 when he took Sam Malinski’s pass at the left side of the crease around the pad of Binnington and put it inside the post.

“He looks great. I thought he's had a great year,” MacKinnon said. “Especially since he's come back from injury, he's been on another level. He's got to be one of the best power forwards in the league. Just does everything.”

Joel Kiviranta was a late scratch due to a lower-body injury.

“He was feeling fine. I thought he was going to play tonight,” Bednar said. “So it wasn't bothering him off the ice and walking around and doing some of his treatment yesterday or this morning. But when he got on the ice, he just he had some weakness and some soreness. So we decided to go a different direction.”

NOTES: Brent Burns skated in his 964th straight game dating back to Nov. 21, 2013, which tied Doug Jarvis for the third-longest streak in NHL history. … MacKinnon (30 years, 121 days) became the sixth-youngest active player to reach 400 career goals. … MacKinnon (two goals, two assists) recorded his 32nd career four-point game, tying Sakic for the second-most in Avalanche/Nordiques history (Peter Stastny, 52). … Nichushkin and MacKinnon became the second set of teammates in NHL history to each score multiple goals in the opening five minutes of a game. They joined the Islanders’ Duane Sutter (two goals) and Bryan Trottier (two goals) on Jan. 26, 1982. … The Avalanche scored four goals in the opening 4:39, marking the third-fastest four goals to start a game in NHL history (Islanders, 3:31 on Jan. 26, 1982; Oilers, 3:39 on Dec. 16, 1981). … Nelson’s assist was his 300th in the NHL.