Valeri Nichushkin, Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Malinski achieved notable milestones in the Avs win Wednesday night.
Valeri Nichushkin, Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Malinski achieved notable milestones in the Avs win Wednesday night.
It was a game of milestones for the Colorado Avalanche in the 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night.
Valeri Nichushkin notched his 100th career goal at 6:49 in the third period, which was his second goal of the night.
"It's good for him, great guy, great attitude and works hard," goalie Ivan Prosvetov said after the game. "It's good to see him get rewarded with his 100th."
Nathan MacKinnon had a two-point night in his 738th game which put him at 800 career points and made him the fifth fastest active player to earn that milestone. The only others to reach the mark in fewer games are Connor McDavid (545 GP), Sidney Crosby (571 GP), Alex Ovechkin (658 GP) and Evgeni Malkin (680 GP).
Colorado owned the first period outshooting Buffalo 15-6 with goals from Mikko Rantanen, Nichushkin and Miles Wood.
"That was a perfect first period for us," head coach Jared Bednar said.
Wood scored his fifth goal of the season about midway through the period on a breakaway.
"JJ (Jack Johnson) made a great play, did a little poke check there and just kind of freed me up there — 2-on-1 — basically the full ice and I just shot ... blocker side and fortunate to get the goal there," Wood said.
Zach Benson nabbed a rebound in front of Ivan Prosvetov and found the back of the net with less than two minutes left in the period. It was only the second shot on goal in the game for Buffalo.
"We have the breakdown at the end of the period, get beat out of the corner and then we kind of do a fly by the net and they get their goal but to that point ... their first scoring chance of the period and they capitalize on it. It's again in the last couple of minutes of the period. So I don't love that," Bednar said.
No goals were scored in the second period despite the Sabres changing the direction of the game and outshot the Avs 15-4.
Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski scored his first NHL goal two minutes and 40 seconds into the third period.
"I saw it go low to high off of Jack (Johnson) and I think he saw me wide, but he was trying to show a little deception and slid it over at the perfect time and I just kind of tried to throw it on net, to be honest," Malinski said about his goal.
MacKinnon also extended his season-opening home point streak to 15 games and became the fifth player in the past 30 years to record a run of that length.
Rantanen assisted on both Nichushkin's goals — which earned him a second consecutive three-point game.
Related links
Emotional return for former Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson
'Just shoot the puck': What Mikko Rantanen focused on to get out of scoring drought