The Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights kicked off Game 1 of their West Division final playoff series Sunday, and the scoring was all Avalanche for much of the game. One particularly impressive goal was the one that made it 6-1, which came from Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon took a pass near center ice, then broke in alone with speed and fired home past Vegas goalie Robin Lehner:
Welcome to the Nathan MacKinnon show, everyone. #StanleyCup
NHL x @massmutual
🇺🇸: https://t.co/7bPoMIc5xs @NHLonNBCSports
🇨🇦: https://t.co/LvbVa16iSE @Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/TKpowsNkyp— NHL (@NHL) May 31, 2021
Here’s another angle of that:
Nathan MacKinnon good lord. pic.twitter.com/IFDwF3scWl
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) May 31, 2021
That was MacKinnon’s second goal on the night. Here was his first, off an impressive low wrist shot through Lehner’s five-hole:
Nathan MacKinnon really just pulled off the no-look 5-hole omgggg 👀 #ItsOn pic.twitter.com/rPPEScTzib
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 31, 2021
MacKinnon also helped set up Gabriel Landeskog for another second-period goal. So he’s having quite the night, as are the Avalanche. And these marked MacKinnon’s seventh and eighth goals of these playoffs, impressive considering that Colorado only played four first-round games given their sweep of the St. Louis Blues. That further solidifies position atop the playoff goals leaderboard. We’ll see if he can keep adding to those totals.
[NHL.com; photo from Ron Chenoy/USA Today Sports]
