MacKinnon has 5 points, Avalanche defeat Kraken to snap 3-game skid

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had five assists, and the Colorado Avalanche snapped a three-game losing streak with a 6-3 win against the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena on Tuesday.

MacKinnon (six goals, 19 assists) and Cale Makar (five goals, 18 assists), who had two assists on Tuesday, each extended their season-opening point streak to 13 games.

Makar left the game after his first shift of the third period. He also missed the final 9:52 of the second period.

“He tweaked something late in the second and wasn't able to continue,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.

Mikko Rantanen had two goals, and Artturi Lehkonen, who made his season debut, and Nikolai Kovalenko each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (6-7-0). Chris Wagner and Ivan Ivan scored, and Justus Annunen made 17 saves.

“It was good. I liked our game right from the get-go,” Bednar said. “I thought we were engaged, we were skating, we were aggressive, disciplined and we had a real strong commitment to defend the right way. So, I liked the game tonight, and then we were able to finally put some pucks in the net.”

Jared McCann and Matty Beniers each had a goal and an assist, and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken (5-8-1), who have lost four straight and seven of their past eight (1-6-1). Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves.

“You're trying to learn some lessons in the bad times, and in each one of the games we've played, you could point to not being able to consistently play our game and compete at the level we need to compete at to win hockey games,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “It's a difficult time. It's difficult lessons to learn, but we have to learn them, and we have to take it as growth.”

Wagner scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0 when he took a cross-ice pass from MacKinnon and scored on a wrist shot from the right face-off dot at 2:28 of the first period.

“As much as we do rely on our top guys, and you need them to lead the way offensively, you need other guys to chip in,” Bednar said. “We haven't got it for a few games, and we haven't won. We get it tonight, we win."

Schwartz tied it 1-1 at 12:58 when Beniers’ pass deflected off his skate at the right post.

Ivan made it 2-1 at 14:12, locating the loose puck and firing a wrist shot over a sprawling Grubauer into the open net.

“I got a nice [pass] from ‘MacK’ and tried to shoot it. He kind of dropped it to me in a corner,” Ivan said. “I found ‘Kovy’ in the slot, and he kind of crashed the goalie and I had an easy job to just put it in.”

McCann scored a power-play goal 23 seconds into the second period to tie it 2-2. Logan O'Connor’s clearing attempt was blocked by Chandler Stephenson, who took the puck down low before finding McCann alone in front.

“I think that's our issue right now, the compete level is not where it probably should be. I know [it was] a tough road trip, and the energy levels got to pick up. It's not going to be easy,” Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour said. “One area I think we can clean up is obviously taking penalties, unnecessary penalties, because it just feeds their high-end players.”

Lehkonen scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from between the circles at 6:44 of the second to make it 3-2. Grubauer got a piece of the shot, but it trickled past him.

“I felt good. Some parts were rusty,” Lehkonen said. “Nate [MacKinnon] made a great pass there. He laid it on a platter for me, so I was just trying to hit the net.”

Rantanen extended the lead to 4-2 with a power-play goal at 9:11, one-timing Makar’s pass from the right face-off dot. The play was unsuccessfully challenged for offsides.

“The linesman, I guess, looked at it again after they had called offsides,” Bylsma said. “They looked at it again, and I think there's an interpretation of the rule in terms of whether we intentionally played the puck back. But we were the last team to touch the puck back, and that's what they ruled.”

Beniers scored to make it 4-3 at 17:31 of the third period with Grubauer on the bench for the extra attacker.

“We just need to be a little bit better all the way through, man to man, every guy in here,” Beniers said. “We scored some goals, but we really need to put together a full 60 [minutes] and find a win.”

Rantanen scored an empty-net goal 24 seconds later to make it 5-3, and Kovalenko scored at 19:58 for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: MacKinnon became the second player in NHL history with multiple season-opening point streaks of at least 13 games (13 games in 2019-20), joining Wayne Gretzky. … MacKinnon recorded his eighth career five-point game and tied Evgeni Malkin for the second most among active players. … MacKinnon and Makar became the third set of teammates in NHL history with simultaneous season-opening point streaks of at least 13 games, joining Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (15 games) with the Bruins in 1973-74, and Dimitri Kvartalnov and Joe Juneau (14 games) with the Bruins in 1992-93. … McCann skated in his 600th career NHL game.