Exploit de Cale Makar et domination de l’Avalanche face aux Red Wings

DENVER, Col. – Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen each had four points against the Detroit Red Wings, and the Colorado Avalanche won 7-2 on Wednesday at Ball Arena.

Makar scored the first hat trick of his career. He becomes the fourth defenseman in Avalanche franchise history to score three goals in a single game. Sandis Ozolinsh (1999), Uwe Krupp (1995), and Bryan Fogarty (1990) are the others who have achieved this feat.

MacKinnon, on the other hand, scored his 40th goal of the season. It is also the second consecutive game in which he recorded four points. He now leads the NHL scoring race with 109 points, four ahead of Nikita Kucherov.

Alexandar Georgiev stopped 27 shots.

Colorado was trailing 2-1 before MacKinnon scored on a power play late in the first period. Jared Bednar’s team then scored six unanswered goals.

Jonathan Drouin scored his 12th goal of the season and assisted on Makar’s 3rd. Jean-Luc Foudy, on the other hand, scored his first goal in the NHL.

Makar, MacKinnon, and Rantanen are the first Avalanche trio to each record four points in a game since 1997. Peter Forsberg, Valeri Kamensky, and Claude Lemieux accomplished the feat.

Red Wings goalies Alex Lyon and James Reimer were bombarded with 55 shots in the game. Rantanen (9) and MacKinnon (8) combined for 17 shots in the victory.

Robbi Fabbri and David Perron were the only scorers for the visitors.

The Wings suffer their third consecutive defeat.

Matthews still the hero in Toronto

Auston Matthews scored the game-winning goal with 40 seconds left in overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Matthews’ goal was his 12th career overtime goal, placing him alone in second place in team history behind Mats Sundin, who has 14.

The Torontonians have won 9 of their last 11 games and are third in the Atlantic Division, behind the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins.

William Nylander scored the other goal in the victory, while Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves, only beaten by Victor Olofsson. His counterpart, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, made 25 saves in his 10th consecutive start.

Samsonov has been excellent since clearing waivers on January 1st. He has won 11 of his 14 games since briefly playing for the Marlies in the AHL.

Despite elite scorer Matthews with 54 goals this season, the Leafs’ top point scorer remains Nylander. He continued his dominance by opening the scoring at 2:29 of the second period with his 34th goal of the season after receiving a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi and shooting from the slot. Nylander is one of 10 NHL players who have scored at least 10 goals since the All-Star break, now at 11.

Four minutes later, however, Victor Olofsson emerged to tie the game. Left out since February 15th by the Sabres, he quickly moved into the offensive zone and unleashed a precise shot into the top corner to surprise Ilya Samsonov.

The Leafs ultimately got the better of the Sabres after losing the first two games of the season series, and the two teams will face off one last time on March 30th in Buffalo.

The Sabres were without their top scorer, Casey Mittelstadt, whom they traded to the Colorado Avalanche today in exchange for Bowen Byram. The 22-year-old defenseman will make his debut with the team tomorrow against the Nashville Predators.