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Avalanche roll over Sharks 6-2 |
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Nathan MacKinnon led the Av's to a solid 6-2 victory last night over the floundering San Jose Sharks. The Mack Attack had a 4 point night, with Jonathan Drouin adding 2 assists, and Alexandar Georgiev looking more like his old self with a 0.936 save percentage.
The Avalanche immediately got off with a huge advantage. Former Av Jacob MacDonald boarded Sam Malinski, drawing blood, but also drawing a huge 5 minute powerplay opportunity for the home team. After ALOT of difficulty getting in and getting set up, Mikko Rantanen won the offensive draw, and MacKinnon got the puck in his typical half wall area on the left. A quick pass over to Jonathan Drouin on the other side led to Drouin absolutely threading the needle down to Val Nichushkin who popped it in for a 1-0 lead with only 30 seconds left in the powerplay.
With 7:45 left in the 1st period, the Avalanche found themselves on the powerplay once again. Yet again, MacKinnon ended up with the puck on the half wall, and threw a pass to Mikko Rantanen on the other side of the net. Mikko deflected it and the Av's went up 2-0.
Finally, with 1:40 left in the first, Drouin passed the puck to Ross Colton in the neutral zone, who fed it back to Miles Wood in the zone coming down on the left wing. Wood sniped a short side missile to make it 3-0. When I was watching this game, seeing Wood come down on that side, it looked like Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood had great positioning, was well out of his crease, and cutting down angles. I thought to myself that Wood has nowhere to shoot at, and was surprised when the puck ended up in the back of the net.
Into the 2nd period, at the 16:16 mark, Nichushkin got in the way of a zone exit coming out of the Sharks zone, and MacKinnon took advantage. He whipped a wrister that first went off the post, off Blackwood, and ended up in the net for a 4-0 lead.
Tomas Hertl would tip a puck in a few minutes later on the powerplay, bringing the score to 4-1 to end the 2nd.
Going into the 3rd period, the Avs went in on the forecheck, with the puck ending up on the stick of Caleb Jones at the point in the Sharks zone. The rebound jumped out to a wide open Ryan Johansen, and he tapped it in for one of the easiest goals I'm sure he's ever scored.
Nathan MacKinnon would take a slashing penalty a bit later, and on the powerplay, Tomas Hertl would score his second of the game. He was left wide open in front, and got a few taps at the puck while Georgiev was on his belly on the ice, making it a 5-2 game.
In the dying minutes of the game, the Sharks would pull their goalie to make a push, and Nathan MacKinnon would bag an empty netter for his 4th point of the night.
This was a good win for a few different reasons. MacKinnon continuing his 15 game point streak, and stepping up to lead the team by example with 4 points was great to see. I was also happy with Jonathan Drouin's game, as I have been over the past few weeks. For his defensive warts, he has been making a concentrated effort to backcheck harder, and his hustle and willingness to get into board battles have been noticeable to me.
It was also nice to see Alexandar Georgiev get back in the win column with a solid effort. He's been a bit of an adventure since he started the year on fire during the 6 game win streak, so it was nice to see him mentally reset and get back to business.
Finally, the win was nice because it was one of those "you should win this game". The Sharks are in a rebuild, that's no secret, and the Avs are competing for a Cup. While one game doesn't make a season, these are games you have to pick up points on.
The Avs will face off against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow, December 19th at 8:30 EST. This is another game where we'd love to see the Avs take 2 more points and keep building wins.
Go Avs!
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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