DENVER — While Nathan MacKinnon has built his reputation on lightning speed and prolific scoring, the Colorado Avalanche star showed Tuesday night he can also punish opponents with bone-jarring hits.
The dynamic forward leveled Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes and Matt Boldy during the third period, capping off an outstanding performance that included one goal and two assists in Colorado’s 5-2 victory. The win puts the Avalanche ahead 2-0 in their second-round playoff matchup against the Wild.
MacKinnon, who led the NHL with 53 regular-season goals, remained humble when discussing both his physical play and offensive contributions after the Tuesday night triumph.
“Just excited to play,” MacKinnon said. “Playoff hockey, obviously, the best the time of year. Just excited and just trying to have a good start.”
With his latest three-point effort, MacKinnon achieved a rare milestone by recording his third consecutive playoff game with three or more points. According to NHL statistics, only five other players have accomplished this feat in the past four decades: Leon Draisaitl (2022), Mikko Rantanen (2025), Joe Pavelski (2010), Joe Sakic (1997), and Dennis Maruk (1986).
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar praised MacKinnon’s complete two-way performance.
“He was unbelievable tonight on both sides of the puck,” Bednar said. “The physicality, the defending details, the hunger to check pucks back in all three zones, and the speed and pace that he played with early in the game — it was like he was shot out of a cannon.”
Team captain Gabriel Landeskog echoed his coach’s sentiments about MacKinnon’s impact.
“Having Nate makes my job a lot easier, for sure,” Landeskog said. “He’s our driving force offensively and tonight, really since the playoffs started, defensively, he’s been a beast as well.”
MacKinnon was officially credited with two hits during the contest — one that sent Hughes crashing to the ice and another that sent Boldy hard into the boards. Despite the effectiveness of his physical play, MacKinnon downplayed the contact.
“It wasn’t that big of a hit,” MacKinnon said regarding his collision with Hughes. “He’s one of the best players in the world and he’s so hard to contain and you’re just trying to do the best that you can. He’s going to create a lot of stuff. I think everyone’s being more physical. The whole team is trying to ramp that up.”
Minnesota now returns home for Saturday’s Game 3, desperately seeking solutions to slow down Colorado’s explosive offense. The Wild made a goaltending change for Game 2, starting Filip Gustavsson instead of Jesper Wallstedt, but still surrendered five goals. Combined with their nine-goal outburst in the series opener, the Avalanche have netted 14 goals through two games — the highest total for the first two contests of a playoff series since Calgary scored 15 against Los Angeles in 1988.
Wild forward Matt Boldy acknowledged the challenge his team faces against Colorado’s high-powered attack.
“They’re a great team. They play super-fast, super-dynamic,” Boldy said. “Obviously, they have some incredible players. The biggest thing is just staying above them and not giving them those odd-man rushes, because obviously they’re pretty special players make special plays.”
