Nathan MacKinnon achieved his 4th career NHL hat trick and added 2 assists, Nicolas Aube-Kubel had 2 goals, and Cale Makar picked up 3 assists as the Western conference-leading Colorado Avalanche routed the Los Angeles Kings 9-3 Wednesday night at Ball Arena in Denver for their 53rd win of the 2021-22 season.
Aube-Kubel opened the scoring for the Avs at 2:54 with his 10th goal of the season, kicking off a 4-goal 1st period for Colorado. At 3:33, Valeri Nichushkin (20) made it 2-0 before MacKinnon logged his first of the night at 10:15 on the power play for his 27th of 2021-22 making it 3-0 Avs. Aube-Kubel would score his 2nd of the game at 10:56 for his 11th goal of the season to cap off the 4-goal team tally.
In the 2nd period, Los Angeles managed to cut the Avs lead in half with a pair of goals by Adrian Kempe (33) at just 1:43 and Alex Iafallo (16) much later on at 10:40. Colorado would add their own pair of goals, however, courtesy of Andre Burakovsky (21) at 13:05 and Cale Makar's PPG (26) at 18:22 to give the Avs a 6-2 lead heading to the 3rd period.
Nathan MacKinnon's 28th of the season at just 1:18 opened the 3rd period scoresheet to make it 7-2 Colorado. It would be the first of 3 straight goals by the Avs, the next two by Nichushkin's 2nd of the night and 21st of the season at 6:11, and MacKinnon's hat trick goal at 9:52 for his 29th of 2021-22 for the final Avs goal on the night. And even though LA added one back courtesy of Phillip Danault (23) at 15:09, the game was long over by the end of the 2nd period.
Team Stats:
Shots: LA 32, COL 35
Hits: LA 18, COL 12
Faceoff Wins: LA 27, COL 25
PIM: LA 4, COL 4
Up Next:
LA: 4/16, vs. CBJ, 10:30 PM
COL: 4/14, vs. NJ, 9 PM
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