Avalanche Game 47 Recap: Top Nate Dogg

Saturday saw the Colorado Avalanche's five game road trip come to an end. What a trip, though. Game 1 was the comeback win in Toronto. Game 2 was the heartbreaking loss in Montreal. Game 3 featured another comeback in in Ottawa, and Game 4 was a tough loss in Boston. The fifth and final game of this road trip sees the Avs in Philadelphia against a Flyers team who appears to be playoff bound.

Alexandar Georgiev was in net for the Avs against Carter Hart, and it was a quite first half of the frame until Logan O'Connor made it 1-0 just two seconds shy of the halfway point. It would be 2-0 later on, as Mikko Rantanen netted his 25th of the season, with the assists coming from Nathan MacKinnon and Ross Colton; the latter having assisted on O'Connor's goal. 2-0 was the score after the first period, and MacKinnon would make it 3-0 in the first minute of the second. The goal gave MacKinnon 75 points, tying him with Nikita Kucherov for the league lead.

Just over a minute later, Joel Farabee put Philly on the board to end the shutout bid, but even so, the Avs were not deterred. O'Connor would get his second of the game at 8:14, but four minutes later, Travis Konecny would make it 4-2. It became 5-2 thanks to MacKinnon's second goal of the frame, and that was Point #76! That was the score after 40 minutes, and Carter Hart's day was done. The Flyers were looking to get something going, and it looked like they would pull something off. Tyson Foerster cut Colorado's lead to two goals at 5:26, and just under three minutes later, it was Cam Atkinson. It was 5-4 now, but an Avalanche power play saw Philly's hopes dashed. Rantanen struck again, and one of the assists came from Cale Makar, who picked up his 300th career point.

Samuel Ersson was in relief during the third, and he was pulled for the extra attacker. However, O'Connor and MacKinnon closed in on the empty net, with both players one goal away from the hat trick. MacKinnon had the puck, and decided to give the nod to O'Connor, who would complete his first career hat trick! Absolutely amazing!

Guess who's leading the league in points?! Logan O'Connor definitely took center stage with the hat trick in Colorado's 7-4 victory; he has been on a roll lately. As for Nathan MacKinnon, the unselfish assist on that goal was his fourth point of the day, giving him 77 this season. While the Tampa Bay Lightning did win, Nikita Kucherov was shutout, giving MacKinnon the points lead by two, with the NHL's All-Star break closing in. In addition, Cale Makar's 300th point came in his 280th game, which is the second-fastest in NHL history by one game--Bobby Orr reached that number in 279 games. Ironically, Makar had the chance to tie Orr in the game against Boston, which would have been so fitting. However, Makar needed two points that night and only picked up one.

So the Avs' road trip ends up being a successful one, and now, it's a long layoff before Game #48. The Avs will be at home for the final two games before the break; first off, the Avs will host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, and then it's another home game against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.

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