MacKinnon Magic
My gosh, Nathan MacKinnon is just a special hockey player. Okay, so we all knew that before this weekend but we were really treated to a special show from one of the most talented players in the National Hockey League on Saturday.
He started early too after sending a beautiful cross-ice pass over to defenseman Samuel Girard to open the scoring at 2:58 in the first period and, although MacKinnon was probably limited in what he was able to do in the first due to the condition of the ice, he more than made up for it more than eight hours later once the game was resumed.
After veteran Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez made it a tied game at 7:37 in the second period, MacKinnon decided to take matters into his own hands and he delivered a truly special moment at 11:18 in the middle frame.
With both teams having four skaters on the ice, MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and proceeded to pick up speed as he motored through the middle of the ice, breezing past elite players in Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo before ripping the puck far side to beat Marc-Andre Fleury and make it a 2-1 game for the Avalanche.
It was an absolute beauty of a goal by MacKinnon who has a few of them on his resume, and the elite center finished with a three-point night after tallying a secondary helper on Devon Toews’ third-period goal, and it was just one hell of a night from Nathan MacKinnon who has 18 points (4 G, 14 A) on the year.