MacKinnon has 5 points, Avalanche defeat Kraken to snap 3-game skid
Makar, MacKinnon each extends season-opening point streak to 13 for Colorado
Kraken at Avalanche | Recap
DENVER — Nathan MacKinnon had five assists, and the Colorado Avalanche snapped a three-game losing streak with a 6-3 win against the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena on Tuesday.
MacKinnon (six goals, 19 assists) and Cale Makar (five goals, 18 assists), who had two assists on Tuesday, each extended their season-opening point streak to 13 games.
Mikko Rantanen had two goals, and Artturi Lehkonen, who made his season debut, and Nikolai Kovalenko each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (6-7-0). Chris Wagner and Ivan Ivan scored, and Justus Annunen made 17 saves.
Jared McCann and Matty Beniers each had a goal and an assist, and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken (5-8-1), who have lost four straight and seven of their past eight (1-6-1). Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves.
Wagner scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0 when he took a cross-ice pass from MacKinnon and scored on a wrist shot from the right face-off dot at 2:28 of the first period.
Schwartz tied it 1-1 at 12:58 when Beniers’ pass deflected off his skate at the right post.
Ivan made it 2-1 at 14:12, locating the loose puck and firing a wrist shot over a sprawling Grubauer into the open net.
McCann scored a power-play goal 23 seconds into the second period to tie it 2-2. Logan O’Connor’s clearing attempt was blocked by Chandler Stephenson, who took the puck down low before finding McCann alone in front.
Lehkonen scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from between the circles at 6:44 of the second to make it 3-2. Grubauer got a piece of the shot, but it trickled past him.
Mikko Rantanen extended the lead to 4-2 with a power-play goal at 9:11, one-timing Makar’s pass from the right face-off dot. The play was unsuccessfully challenged for offsides.
Beniers scored to make it 4-3 at 17:31 of the third period with Grubauer on the bench for the extra attacker.
Rantanen scored an empty-net goal 24 seconds later to make it 5-3, and Kovalenko scored at 19:58 for the 6-3 final.
Cale Makar left the game after his first shift of the third period. He also missed the final 9:52 of the second period.