Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon of Halifax, Nova Scotia recorded his ninth career National Hockey League hat trick on Tuesday. He accomplished the feat in a 5-2 Avalanche win over the Minnesota Wild at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
MacKinnon’s first goal came at 8:38 of the first period. Jonathan Drouin of Ste-Agathe, Quebec and defenseman Cale Makar of Calgary, Alberta picked up the assists on an all-Canadian goal. MacKinnon then scored the last two goals of the game. He put the Avalanche up 4-2 at 14:50 of the second period. Defenseman Devon Toews of Abbotsford, British Columbia and Drouin had the assists on another all-Canadian goal. Then MacKinnon put the Avalanche up 5-2 to close out the scoring with a goal with 52 seconds left in the second period. Artturi Lehkonen picked up the assist.
MacKinnon was one of two Canadians to score for the Avalanche. The other was Makar, who scored the game-winner at 6:15 of the second period to break a 2-2 tie, and put Colorado up 3-2.
Four Canadians had multi-point games for the Avalanche. MacKinnon had four points (three goals and one assist), Makar had three points (one goal and two assists), Drouin had three points (three assists), and Toews had two points (two assists).
This season MacKinnon has 51 goals and 86 assists for 137 points in 79 games. He is a +37 with 40 penalty minutes, 47 power-play points, nine game-winning goals, a NHL-high 396 shots on goal, 591 faceoff wins, 68 blocked shots, 54 hits, 41 takeaways and 82 giveaways.
MacKinnon now has three hat tricks this season. The other two hat-tricks he scored four times. The first came in a 6-4 Avalanche win over the Ottawa Senators on December 21, 2023, and the second came in a 6-2 Avalanche win over the Washington Capitals on January 24, 2024.
In 2023-24, the Avalanche are in second place in the Central Division. They have a record of 49 wins, 24 regulation losses and six losses in extra time for 104 points.
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