MacKinnon has 4 points for Avalanche in win against Red Wings

DENVER --Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 at Ball Arena on Monday.

Cale Makar scored twice and had one assist, J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Francouz made 26 saves for the Avalanche (22-17-3), who have won two straight after losing seven of eight. Colorado defeated the Ottawa Senators 7-0 on Saturday.
"There's not too many areas I want to complain about from our last couple of games," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "So, to be able to win and win the right way and kind of get back on track on what we have to do to have success, I think is good timing.
"I think if you're playing your game for 60 minutes the way you're supposed to, then the wins will come in regulation."
David Perron had a goal and an assist, and Michael Rasmussen had two assists for the Red Wings (18-17-7), who have lost their past two games and five of seven (2-5-0).
Ville Husso allowed five goals on 22 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by Magnus Hellberg, who made four saves.

"You lose 6-3, you don't feel very good about yourself," Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. "But when you look at the whole process of it, we probably outchanced them, and I know we outshot them. They just got some momentum off some power plays, and a couple of their guys had some really, really elite nights tonight. That was the difference."
Artturi Lehkonen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 5:12 of the first period when his wrist shot from just above the right face-off circle caromed off the blocker of Husso.
Makar extended it to 2-0 with a power-play goal, scoring on a point shot through a screen by forward Valeri Nichushkin at 18:04. He made it 3-0 when he cut down the left side, drove to the net and slid the puck past Husso at 3:05 of the second period.
"I was actually going to shoot that and then I'd seen we had a good screen, so I just tried to get it far-side," Makar said. "A lot of confidence comes from when you're getting pucks to the net in the [offensive zone]. You see that they're vulnerable, and then every shift that comes after that, all the lines see that and we just keep getting the puck to the net."
Compher scored a power-play goal to make it 4-0 when he tapped in a pass from Evan Rodrigues at the top of the crease at 10:06.
"He's got a lot of deception in his game, he's always looking one place and passing it someplace else," Bednar said of Rodrigues. "So, great vision and awareness right away when he picks up the puck to kind of know where guys are at and figure out where their momentum is going. And then he always adds a little bit of extra deception in it before it makes it. It's why he's so successful making those plays."
MacKinnon made it 5-0, cutting through the slot and one-touching a pass from Rodrigues at 15:53.

"Rodrigues] makes a ton of little plays that maybe aren't the flashiest plays but are super important for possession and building chemistry," MacKinnon said. "It's nice to play with a really smart [guy]."
Andrew Copp cut it to 5-1, scoring on a wrist shot from the right circle at 18:58.
During a 4-on-4, Ben Chiarot made it 5-2 when he scored on a slap shot from the point at 3:40 of the third period before MacKinnon stole the puck from Copp at the Avalanche blue line and scored on a breakaway to make it 6-2 at 5:24.
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