Wild have no answer for MacKinnon as Avalanche win again
On Saturday, Nathan MacKinnon silenced everyone who wondered whether the Colorado Avalanche could score in the playoffs without injured star Matt Duchene.
MacKinnon put together a four-point game, after posting three assists in postseason debut, contributing a goal and three assists as the Avalanche won Game 2 by a score of 4-2 to take a 2-0 series lead over the Minnesota Wild.
Final: #Avs - 4, Wild - 2. Colorado leads series 2-0. pic.twitter.com/5SGGCzFNdq
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 20, 2014
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog scored twice in the second period on feeds from MacKinnon and linemate Paul Stastny, who added an empty-netter to go with three assists.
The line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Stastny has 17 combined points after the series' opening two contests.
Landeskog on MacKinnon: He's growing up faster than anyone could expect. He knows what he's good at and he knows how to use it.
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) April 20, 2014
Minnesota jumped out to a fast start in the first period and was rewarded with the opening goal as Mikko Koivu's centering pass deflected off Charlie Coyle and past Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who made 30 saves. The Avalanche controlled play in the latter half of the first after MacKinnon scored his first career playoff goal to tie the game.
[Source: ExtraSkater.com]
Marco Scandella scored a short-handed goal with 1:19 remaining in the third period to pull the Wild within one, but Stastny sealed the win 1:04 later.
Wild netminder Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots in 31:59 and backup Darcy Kuemper was a perfect 14-for-14 the rest of the way.