MacKinnon gets 4 points, Avalanche score 8 against Senators in win

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists, and the Colorado Avalanche won their 16th consecutive home game, 8-2 against the Ottawa Senators at Ball Arena on Thursday.

Josh Manson had two goals and two assists, Brock Nelson had two goals and an assist, Cale Makar had a goal and two assists, and Martin Necas had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (32-4-7), who scored six times in the second period. Brent Burns scored a goal, Ross Colton had three assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 29 saves.

“That was something. He had a Gordie Howe hat trick early in the second period, and then he just kept coming,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of Manson. "He was involved in everything tonight, the physicality of the game and, like, what we just normally evaluate him on. The defending and all that was good, and then on the offensive side of it, I mean, he just had a fantastic night.”

Shane Pinto and Brady Tkachuk scored for the Senators (20-18-5), who have lost three straight and five of their past seven (2-5-0).

“A tough game. At 3-1, I thought we scored a goal to get it 3-2, thought it gave us a lot of life. I liked our game then,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Colorado is a good team. Got away from us in about six minutes, and that's kind of the night.”

Leevi Merilainen allowed three goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Mads Sogaard at 2:35 of the second period. Sogaard then allowed five goals on 16 shots in his season debut before Merilainen was put back in the game to start the third period. Merilainen made an additional six saves.

Manson gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with a one-legged wrist shot from above the left circle that found its way through traffic before going under the leg of Merilainen at 10:11 of the first period.

“It was fun. I don't think he's ever seen that before,” Manson said of his father, former NHL defenseman Dave Manson, who was in attendance. “He’s seen me fight. He's maybe seen me score, but I don't think he's ever seen [that]. Well, actually, nobody's ever seen that before out of me in the NHL, so it was the first for everybody, including myself.”

MacKinnon extended it to 2-0 at 17:14 when he coasted backward to the top of the left circle and fired a wrist shot that went past Merilainen's blocker.

Makar pushed it to 3-0 after MacKinnon dropped a pass to Makar inside the blue line, and the defenseman took it down for the wrist shot from above the left dot at 2:35 of the second period.

Claude Giroux corralled a loose puck at the Ottawa blue line and reversed the other way to Pinto for the rush, who skated in to the top of the left circle and fired a wrist shot that got past Wedgewood top shelf on the short side to cut it to 3-1 at 5:08.

“I go and I score, then it kind of got away from us. Just unfortunate,” Pinto said. “It just kind of got away from us in the second.

“It was frustrating. When you lose 8-2, obviously it’s just frustrating.”

Ottawa appeared to have scored to make it 3-2 at 6:15, but Colorado successfully challenged the play for being offside and a video review overturned the goal.

“It's probably only about a two or three minute push in there where they score and then score again on the offside goal,” Bednar said. “That was pretty obvious it was offside, but I just think, like, at that point you have to turn it. One goal going in and another one, even though it was offside, that's enough.

“And I thought our guys did a good job doing that, getting back on track right away. And the power play helped with that, right. Kind of backed them off again. They took a penalty, we scored. They took another one, we scored again.”

Necas scored a power-play goal at 11:46 to make it 4-1. His one-timer from the bottom of the left circle went short side off Sogaard.

Just 17 seconds later, Burns made it 5-1 after his slap shot from the blue line caromed off Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot at the left side of the crease and bounced inside the left post.

“I think it's just kind of one of those things where you start rolling and it's happening,” Manson said. “We were getting behind there. It could have been 3-2 in that hockey game, and they had the momentum. And luckily, it was offside. [Video coach] Brett [Heimlich] and the coaching staff made a great job on that call. And then (the) power play (group) goes out and they get us going again, and then we roll from there.”

Nelson made it 6-1 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 14:23. He one-timed MacKinnon’s pass at the bottom of the right circle short side under the glove of Sogaard.

“Took a lot of heat when we signed him for his number, around the League, if I remember correctly,” Bednar said of Nelson. “And now you see what guys are signing for that play that position, that are, in my opinion, not as good as Brock.”

Manson scored his second of the game to make it 7-1 at 16:48 with a slap shot from the blue line getting under the glove of Sogaard, and Nelson made it 8-1 at 18:04 when his one-timer from above the left dot went short side.

“Just kind of worked out that way where I was over there,” Nelson said. “Great passes from Nate, and then [Ilya Solovyov], too, throwing that one underneath. And [I was] able to have some space.”

Tkachuk scored a short-handed goal at 7:03 of the third period, finishing the rebound of Tyler Kleven’s initial shot through Wedgewood for the 8-2 final.

NOTES: MacKinnon recorded his 312th career multipoint game, putting him one behind Peter Stastny (313) for the second-most in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … Nelson recorded his 10th career 20-goal season. The only other active U.S.-born players with as many seasons are Patrick Kane (17), Auston Matthews (10) and Chris Kreider (10). … Makar became the first defenseman this season to 50 points. … Burns tied Tim Horton and Allan Stanley (both with seven) for the fourth-most career goals by a defenseman at age 40 or older. The only others with more are Nicklas Lidstrom (27), Zdeno Chara (24) and Chris Chelios (14). … Colorado had five players get at least three points through two periods of a game for the first time in its history. The last NHL team to do so was the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 7, 2022.