The Colorado Avalanche had four games left in the regular season tonight, and they need every single one of them. Having lost the last two games in a row with the last one against the Dallas Stars a 7–4 loss. Dallas would win while the Avalanche played the Minnesota Wild tonight, as well as the Winnipeg Jets. So tonight became a must-win and Nathan MacKinnon must have gotten the message. He and Cale Makar both had a milestone night as the Avalanche wanted to guarantee that the Wild would not see the playoffs this season. Here are the takeaways from the 5–2 victory over the Wild.
Takeaways
— MacKinnon went into tonight with 133 points so far this season, six points shy of Peter Stastny’s record of 139. The Canadian had four games to tie or break the record… tonight MacKinnon made sure that he will probably pass it. He racked up four points with a hat trick and an assist. It was his seventh career hat trick, trailing only Stastny (16), Joe Sakic (15), and Michel Goulet (13). The second goal of the night was MacKinnon’s 50th goal, which is the first time that he reached the mark in his career.
— Cale Makar continues to be more than just a great defenseman. Makar has exceeded his points from the 2021-22 year (86). The young defenseman now has 87 points in 74 games played for the Avalanche this season. With the goal scored in the second period, Makar is the first blue liner for the Avalanche to have two 20-goal seasons.
— Alexandar Georgiev continues to puzzle me with some of his decisions. The first goal by the Wild, Georgiev, was pushing the puck into traffic rather than covering it for a stoppage. I have never played goalie (it is the only position I haven’t), but he had it right on his stick and could have fallen on it. These types of decisions are the ones that worry me this late in the season.
Conclusion
I understand the Wild are not much of a playoff team, but the performance from Colorado tonight is what we expect. Players had their heads up for the passes and they were rushing out of the zone for the breakout. This made it a lot easier for Colorado to exit their own zone and get through the neutral zone. If they can perform like this against Winnipeg on Saturday, they should have no issues. The Avalanche could take a four point lead over the Jets and trail the Stars by only three points.
More must-reads: