It’s easy to overlook any individual member of the Colorado Avalanche because the team is so deep and talented.
However, in Game Five of their second-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues, Avs center Nathan MacKinnon made the hockey world sit up and pay notice, scoring three times to put the Blues on the verge of elimination with less than three minutes remaining in regulation time.
The tenacious, Stanley Cup-winning Blues core, on the other hand, refused to give up, getting clutch goals from their depth players – most notably, a pair of goals from winger Robert Thomas, including the game-tying goal with 56 seconds left in the third period – and veteran forward Tyler Bozak scoring the overtime winner to make it 5-4 and send the series back to St. Louis for Game Six on Friday.
MacKinnon, who was injured late in the regular season and missed a total of 17 games this season, had an assist in the defeat, and he now has eight goals and 13 points in nine playoff games. He’s one goal away from tying his career-high of nine goals in the postseason, which he set in 15 games in the 2020 playoffs. He was dominant in a way that only true top players like Edmonton phenom Connor McDavid have been – MacKinnon has 36 goals and 82 points in 59 career postseason games. He’s the best Colorado has to offer, and for most of Game Five, it looked like he was going to carry the Avs to the Western Conference Final on his own.
