Colorado's Mikko Rantanen achieved the 3rd hat trick of his young NHL career to help the Avalanche thrash the Nashville Predators 6-2 Saturday night in Denver. Rantanen's first two goals of the night came at the 4:41 and 17:37 marks of the 1st period, both on the power play. In total, Rantanen scored season goals 8-10 on the night. Teammate Cale Makar also added 3 assists on the night, after which he was rewarded by the Avs faithful with bunches of kale, the vegetable, thrown onto the ice.
After Colorado went to the first intermission leading 2-0, Nashville cut the Avs lead in half courtesy of Luke Kunin (3) at the 4:44 mark of period 2. At the 6:19 mark, the Avalanche got back in front a little bit with Bowen Byram's 4th of the season to make it 3-1 Colorado. Nashville and the Avs headed to the second intermission with the home team keeping their 3-1 lead.
Colorado got off to another hot start in period 3, as Valeri Nichuskin scored his 5th of the season past Nashville netminder David Rittich. Nichuskin's goal came at the 6:42 mark to make it 4-1 Colorado. Rantanen would later make it 5-1 with his hat trick goal at the 15:12 mark. And although Nashville would spoil things about a minute later with former Av Matt Duchene's 13th of the season at the 16:28 mark, Colorado ended up putting their foot on the gas after that and acted like it never even happened in the first place. Tyson Jost sealed the Preds' fate with his 2nd of the season with just over a minute to go.
The Avalanche racked up an impressive 21 penalty minutes to Nashville's 12. Colorado won more faceoffs than the Preds with a 31-29 edge. They also outshot Nashville 35-28. The Preds countered with a 31-20 hits advantage.
Next up for Colorado is a long road trip northeast to Toronto for a clash against the Maple Leafs Dec.1 at 7:30 PM. For Nashville, they head back home to Bridgestone Arena to face the Columbus Blue Jackets Tuesday night, Nov. 28 at 8 PM.
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