MacKinnon powers Avalanche past Red Wings

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist to help the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Detroit Red Wings 5-1 at Pepsi Center on Sunday.
The Avalanche are two points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They are three points behind the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central Division.

WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Avalanche highlights]
MacKinnon has 38 goals, the most for an Avalanche player since Milan Hejduk had 50 in 2002-03, and 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in a 12-game point streak.
"For me, if we get in the playoffs, he's the MVP," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I can't imagine there's another player that means more for their team and is doing more for their team than what Nate's doing for us. That's just the way I see it. I mean, he is the driving force to our offense. "
MacKinnon said he heard fans chanting "MVP" after the game.
"That's cool," he said. "I feel good. I feel when I get the puck I have a lot of time with it. I'm not rushing it, I'm pretty calm, I'm not getting too antsy. I trust myself if I do the right things that I know I can accomplish out there, things seem to happen for me."

Blake Comeau, Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Barrie scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 37 saves for the Avalanche (39-25-8), who are 7-1-3 in their past 11 games and 15-2-1 in the past 18 at home.
"I've been impressed with this team for quite some time, what they're doing," Bednar said. "I don't know how many people picked us to be where we are right now. For our guys, the age of our group, the inexperience of our group, it's pretty impressive what they're doing. That speaks to the leadership in the room."
Justin Abdelkader scored, and Jared Coreau made 26 saves for the Red Wings (26-35-11), who lost their 10th straight game (0-9-1). They are 19 points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"Very frustrated, for sure," Abdelkader said. "Losing 10 in a row, it's not fun. You just have to dig in and continue to come to work each day and compete as hard as you can. Just got to find a way to keep [pucks] out of our net and score more than them."

The Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Landeskog and Comeau. Landeskog scored at 3:58 when he tipped in MacKinnon's shot. Comeau scored at 14:38, driving to the net to redirect Carl Soderberg's pass from the right circle.
MacKinnon made it 3-0 at 11:14 of the second period with his 37th goal, putting a backhand shot past Coreau's left arm.
The Red Wings cut the lead to 3-1 at 12:38 on Abdelkader's shot from the base of the left face-off circle that got past Varlamov.
MacKinnon scored his 38th goal at 7:09 of the third to give the Avalanche a 4-1 lead. He skated into the Red Wings zone and put a wraparound into the net off Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson.
"I thought maybe he'd shoot it short-side, tried throwing my leg out," Coreau said. "He threw it in front. Ericsson doing his job cutting that off and it goes off his stick and into the net. It's tough."
Barrie made it 5-1 at 16:26 on a 5-on-3 power play to extend his point streak to 10 games (five goals, eight assists).

Goal of the game

MacKinnon's goal at 11:14 of the second period.

Save of the game

Varlamov's save on Anthony Mantha at 2:56 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

MacKinnon's goal at 7:09 of the third period.

They said it

"We're not worried about anybody coming out flat or not bringing their best, which is nice. Everyone is very confident in each other. That's what makes for a very good team. Everyone really trusts each other on this team. We have a full group of guys committed to the same thing."-- Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon
"Everyone cares, everyone wants to win. We really do care. Fans back at home are just as frustrated as we are. We want to win just as bad or more than they do. We just have to stay positive." -- Red Wings goalie Jared Coreau

Need to know

Defenseman Erik Johnson returned for Colorado after missing 13 games because of an upper-body injury. He had two hits and was plus-1 in 19:52. ... MacKinnon has three or more points in 13 games this season. ... Colorado has killed 18 straight penalties in the past six games. ... Avalanche forward Vladislav Kamenev returned after missing 54 games to recover from a broken arm he sustained Nov. 16 against the Washington Capitals. He was minus-1 in 10:03.

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What's next

Red Wings: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSP, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, ALT, NHL.TV)