T.J. Hughes scored his first NHL goal, Artturi Lehkonen scored twice and Colorado ripped off five straight goals after falling behind 2-0 on Friday night at Ball Arena.
By The Beat Writer — CelebnMusic247
DENVER — For about nine minutes on Friday night, this looked like Pittsburgh’s game. Then Nathan MacKinnon took it over, and the Colorado Avalanche ran the Pittsburgh Penguins out of Ball Arena, 5-2 — as the Avalanche beat Penguins 5-2 with five unanswered goals.
The Penguins struck twice in 29 seconds midway through the first period. Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring at 8:28, and Bryan Rust doubled the lead at 8:57 off a feed from Sidney Crosby, according to the Associated Press via Sportsnet. That assist was a milestone: Crosby’s 1,110th in the NHL, moving him into sole possession of seventh place in league history, per AP, and leaving him one short of Ray Bourque’s 1,111 assists with Boston, the most ever recorded with a single franchise.
Avalanche beat Penguins 5-2: the 25-second turnaround
Colorado’s answer started before the period ended. Artturi Lehkonen cut the deficit in half at 11:01 of the first, scoring off a MacKinnon feed on the rush for his fifth goal of the season, per NHL.com. Then the second period flipped the game for good. Just 25 seconds in, Lehkonen tied it 2-2 with his second of the night and sixth of the season, catching a MacKinnon shot that hit the post, dropping the puck to his stick and scoring from the doorstep, according to NHL.com.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog put Colorado in front to stay at 4:24 of the second, slamming home a Brock Nelson pass. Per AP, it was Landeskog’s 83rd career go-ahead goal, tying Mikko Rantanen for sixth in Avalanche history. Arturs Silovs had kept Pittsburgh close moments earlier, stopping a MacKinnon penalty shot just 15 seconds before the Landeskog goal, according to Reuters.
The night’s best moment belonged to the new guy. At 14:57 of the second, T.J. Hughes scored his first career NHL goal, finishing a MacKinnon feed down low for a 4-2 lead. NHL.com noted he was hugged by Cale Makar and playfully squirted with water by Landeskog on his way past the bench.
“[It] felt really good,” Hughes said, per ColoradoAvalanche.com. “It was a big goal in a big time of the game, and Nate gave me a great pass.”
MacKinnon’s line and where both teams go next
MacKinnon closed the scoring himself with a power-play one-timer from the left circle at 15:06 of the third period. His final line: one goal, three assists, four points. Reuters reported he now has 16 points — six goals and 10 assists — in eight games this season. Martin Necas added three assists and Makar two, while Mackenzie Blackwood settled in after the shaky start to stop 29 of 31 shots. Colorado went 1-for-4 on the power play and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill, per NHL.com, in assistant coach Brett McLean’s debut running the power play.
The win, Colorado’s third game in four nights, moved the Avalanche to 5-2-1. Pittsburgh, getting 27 saves from Silovs, fell to 1-4-1 in its last six, per Reuters, and heads to Vegas on Saturday night. Colorado opens a two-game road trip Monday in Philadelphia.
Photo Courtesy of Instagram Colorado Avalanche
Sources: NHL.com / Colorado Avalanche, Associated Press via Sportsnet, Reuters.
