MacKinnon, Rantanen help Avalanche bury Blackhawks
DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each scored twice and had an assist, Rocco Grimaldi got his first of the season and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 on Saturday night.
Sven Andrighetto also scored and Jonathan Bernier had 39 saves for the Avalanche (6-5-0).
Artem Anisimov, Nick Schmaltz and Ryan Hartman scored for Chicago (5-5-2), which has lost three straight and five of its last six. Corey Crawford had seven saves after replacing Anton Forsberg in net. Forsberg yielded five goals on 20 shots.
Bernier had to come up big in the second half of the game but it was MacKinnon who got Colorado rolling. He factored into the Avalanche's first four goals to have his first true breakout game of the season.
Rantanan made it 1-0 at 3:42 of the first when MacKinnon checked Jan Rutta off the puck behind the Chicago net. Later in the first, after Brandon Saad hit the post on a short-handed chance, Alexander Kerfoot left a drop pass for MacKinnon as he entered the zone, and his blast beat Forsberg high at 15:20.
The period ended with Rantanen scoring an unassisted goal at 19:56 after MacKinnon's shot nearly trickled in before it was pushed out of the crease.
MacKinnon made it 4-0 when he scored on a 2-on-1 rush with linemate Gabriel Landeskog 2:56 into the second.
Andrighetto's goal at 6:44 made it 5-0 and chased Forsberg.
The goal change gave the Blackhawks a spark. They outshot the Avalanche 13-4 the rest of the period and got a couple goals to make it closer heading into the third.
Schmaltz scored the first one when he redirected a shot by Michal Kempny 1:09 after Andrighetto scored Anisimov made it 5-2 when he scored on an odd-man rush at 14:05.
Bernier made a save on Ryan Hartman early in the third to keep it 5-2, and then Grimaldi, who was recalled Friday from San Antonio of the AHL, made it a four-goal game at 8:45.
Hartman completed the scoring at 15:05.
NOTES: D Nikita Zadorov was a healthy scratch for Colorado. ... LW Andrew Agozzino, recalled from San Antonio on Friday, was also a healthy scratch. ... The Blackhawks scored their first short-handed goal Friday night and nearly got another one on LW Brandon Saad's shot that hit the post in the first period. ... D Tyson Barrie's assist on Sven Andrighetto's goal was his 200th career point.