Drouin helps Avalanche pounce on slumping Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jonathan Drouin got his first two goals of the season, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the slumping Florida Panthers 7-4 on Saturday night.

Drouin was playing for only the fifth time this season. He missed 16 games with an upper-body injury.

Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists for Colorado, which got a four-goal second period — with scores from Drouin, Rantanen, Logan O’Connor and Samuel Girard. Oliver Kylington also scored for the Avalanche, who improved to 3-0-0 on their four-game road trip.

Cale Makar and Devon Toews had two assists apiece for Colorado.

Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell scored for Florida, which has dropped five of its last six games. Matthew Tkachuk and Mackie Samoskevich each had two assists for the Panthers.

Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon played in his 812th game, one shy of matching Michel Goulet for the fourth-most in franchise history. Joe Sakic (1,378), Milan Hejduk (1,020) and Adam Foote (967) are the only players with more for the franchise (which started as the Quebec Nordiques).

Panthers: Reinhart now has a point in 13 consecutive games, tying himself, Jonathan Huberdeau and Pavel Bure for the second-longest streak in Florida history. Mike Hoffman had a 17-game streak for the Panthers in the 2018-19 season.

Florida got 56 seconds of five-on-three hockey after Josh Manson was called for hooking Barkov with 15:54 left. Florida appeared to score 11 seconds later, only to have it waved off for goaltender interference against Tkachuk. Florida challenged the call, lost and Samoskevich went to the box for the ensuing delay penalty.

Makar now has 100 multi-point games in his career.

Avalanche: Visit Tampa Bay on Monday.

Panthers: Host Washington on Monday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl