Avalanche vs. Lightning: Nathan MacKinnon's Four-Point Night Powers Colorado Past Tampa Bay 6-3

Sixty-eight seconds. That is how long it took Nathan MacKinnon to remind the Tampa Bay Lightning what they had walked into. MacKinnon found Martin Necas driving the slot, Necas kicked it out to Devon Toews on the left side, and Toews buried it with Andrei Vasilevskiy down and out. Barely a minute in, the Avalanche led.

MacKinnon finished with a goal and three assists, and the Colorado Avalanche hammered the Lightning 6-3 on Friday night to snap a two-game losing streak. Tampa Bay arrived having won three straight and seven of eight. It left wondering what hit it.

Colorado Comes Out Flying

The early blitz was relentless. After Brandon Hagel went off for tripping at 5:09, Nazem Kadri one-timed a T.J. Hughes feed from the left circle at 5:52 for his first goal of the season, and Colorado led 2-0 inside six minutes. "You go down 2-0 five minutes into the game, now you're chasing it," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said afterward, and chase is exactly what the Lightning did all night.

It got worse 24 seconds into the second period. On a 2-on-1, Fedor Svechkov's cross-ice feed for Hughes clipped Vasilevskiy's stick and fluttered up, so Svechkov simply swatted it out of the air and inside the left post. That is a goal you practice exactly never. It was 3-0, and Colorado coach Jared Bednar had a simple scouting report on his forward: "Big, strong guy."

Then the second period turned into a penalty parade, nearly all of it going against Colorado. Logan O'Connor was called for goaltender interference at 3:04, Taylor Makar for tripping at 8:00, and Tampa Bay finally found a way through at 8:13. Brock Nelson blocked a Charle-Edouard D'Astous point shot, the puck caromed off the left post to Jake Guentzel, and Guentzel finished short side into an open net. Artturi Lehkonen went off at 10:49 and the parade rolled on.

The Turning Point: Scoring Between the Kills

This is where a lesser home team cracks. Colorado was burning its penalty killers, and Bednar later said the Avalanche had something like six straight penalties at one point. "So you're only using half your bench," he said.

Instead of sagging, Colorado struck. At 13:57, MacKinnon circled the net and dished to Lehkonen, whose snap shot from the left circle deflected off Erik Cernak's leg and slipped through Vasilevskiy's pads. That made it 4-1, and it pulled the air out of the comeback before the Lightning could build any.

Guentzel did get one back at 19:17, converting a backhand setup from Brayden Point at the right post. Colorado challenged for a missed stoppage, lost the challenge, and handed Tampa Bay yet another power play to close the period, according to the AP. The Lightning came up empty again, and Colorado carried a 4-2 lead into the third.

The third belonged to the stars. Lehkonen sent MacKinnon away through the neutral zone, and once MacKinnon hit top gear there was no catching him; he ripped a wrister past Vasilevskiy's blocker from the left side at 4:18. D'Astous beat Mackenzie Blackwood from the high slot at 15:13 to make it 5-3, but Necas hit the empty net at 17:19 to end any thoughts of a late push.

MacKinnon Does MacKinnon Things

MacKinnon posted a goal, three assists and a plus-4 in 18:10. According to NHL.com, it was his 45th career three-assist game, tying Joe Sakic for third in Avalanche and Nordiques history behind Peter Stastny (47) and Peter Forsberg (46). "Obviously, a good start tonight. Beat one of the best teams in the League, so that's always good," MacKinnon said, with the calm of a man who does this a lot.

Necas had a goal and two assists, and he could not stop praising his linemate. "He's very underrated. He's always in a good spot," Necas said of Lehkonen, who had a goal and an assist, pushed his point streak to six games and has nine goals already, per NHL.com.

Toews had a goal and an assist, Kadri got off the schneid, and Blackwood made 31 saves on 34 shots.

For Tampa Bay, Guentzel scored twice and is up to seven goals. D'Astous had a goal, an assist, five hits and three blocked shots, and Point had two assists. Vasilevskiy stopped 18 of 23, including one MacKinnon liner that hit him in the mask, per the AP. Nikita Kucherov was held off the score sheet and remains one point from passing Steven Stamkos for the franchise's career points record, with the two tied at 1,137.

Stats That Matter

• 34-24: Tampa Bay's edge in shots. Volume was not the problem.
• 45: Lightning shot attempts that were either blocked or missed the net, out of nearly 80, according to Cooper. "That's an issue," he said.
• 19-12: Colorado's advantage in blocked shots, which explains a lot of Cooper's math.
• 1-for-6: Tampa Bay's power play, on a night it got chance after chance.
• 59.4: Lightning faceoff percentage. They had the puck plenty. They just could not do much with it.

What It Means

Colorado improves to 6-4-1 with 13 points and is 4-1-1 at home. The Avalanche had dropped three of their previous four, including road losses at Philadelphia and New Jersey, and Bednar called this "probably our most complete effort of the year," adding a caveat that fit the night: "Close as you can get with all the penalties in the second period." They visit Nashville on Sunday night.

Tampa Bay falls to 7-3-0 with 14 points, and its three-game win streak is over. The Lightning are just 2-3-0 on the road. Cooper pointed to rust after time off, and Point was blunt: "I think we missed each other a lot out there." They play at Utah on Saturday night with no time to dwell.

The night also matched the NHL's two longest-tenured coaches, per the AP: Cooper, hired by Tampa Bay in March 2013, and Bednar, hired by Colorado in August 2016.

Major Energy

Wyndham Clark, the 2026 U.S. Open champion, was in the building with his trophy and drank from it as the crowd cheered, per the AP. Fitting, because MacKinnon spent the night playing like a man chasing his own major. Tampa Bay has the talent to win this matchup next time. On Friday, it never got out of the bunker.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.