MacKinnon has 3 points, leads Avalanche past Capitals

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist to reach 1,100 NHL points, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2 at Ball Arena on Monday.

“I just want to feel good every game,” MacKinnon said of the achievement. “I want to play well, feel good, help the team. In my mind, it could go away any day, so I'm not enjoying [any milestones] right now.”

Victor Olofsson had a goal and an assist, Parker Kelly and Artturi Lehkonen scored, and Martin Necas had two assists for the Avalanche (34-5-8), had lost two in a row (0-1-1). Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves

“I liked the whole game, our effort and mentality and commitment to check the right way,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We took a few too many penalties, but I thought, overall, like really good effort from our team and a good bounce back game from us.”

Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin didn’t play because of an upper-body injury he sustained after being involved in a car accident on the way to the rink before the game.

“He had some minor injuries,” Bednar said. “Came to the rink, got checked out, and everything seems to be OK, just not good enough to play tonight. Just a little bit of a precautionary day, and we'll see what tomorrow brings for him.

“It was a fender bender, yeah, but serious enough to keep him out of the lineup tonight. … Roads were icy when the guys were coming in this morning and slick, and there was a multiple vehicle accident.”

Ethen Frank had a goal and an assist, Jakob Chychrun scored, and Charlie Lindgren made 39 saves for the Capitals (24-20-6), who have lost three straight and are 2-5-0 in their past seven games.

“I thought we were right there. I didn't mind our game through 40 (minutes), hanging in there,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “You got to understand, as I dissect this game, that that is as good a team -- it’s the best team in the NHL. So, they're going to give you issues in all sorts of ways. They have some world-class players.

“So, we're right there. We're hanging in it. Think we're down a goal going into the third period, but thought we did some good things. Gets away from us late in the game there, yeah. We just didn't do enough to make a final push there in the third period to try to generate a little bit more to get ourselves over the hump and have a few better looks to get that game at 3-3.”

Kelly gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 5:54 of the first period. He redirected Cale Makar’s point shot past the left pad of Lindgren from between the circles.

Chychrun tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 7:27, scoring with a wrist shot from the blue line that made it through traffic before beating Wedgewood's glove.

“They're a good team. They play super fast. I thought we held our own, but ultimately gave them too many chances," Capitals forward Dylan Strome said. “Felt like a lot of the time we were doing a lot to try not to get scored on and not enough push offensively. So, got to move past it, and, obviously, we need to start getting some wins.”

MacKinnon scored a power-play goal to to put Colorado back in front 2-1 at 7:03 of the second period. He skated into Washington's zone, went to the right of Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary, and buried a wrist shot far side past Lindgren's glove.

Olofsson extended it to 3-1 at 15:58 when he snapped the rebound of Josh Manson’s point shot over the shoulder of Lindgren. Brock Nelson won a face-off and passed back to Manson to set up the play.

“It’s always nice to score, and I consider myself a guy that should put some pucks in the net,” Olofsson said. "Obviously, it’s frustrating when they don’t go in, but I think I’ve been playing pretty well lately in the last few weeks, and it was nice to get one.”

Frank scored 17 seconds later to cut it to 3-2 at 16:15. He received a centering pass from Alex Ovechkin at the top of the crease and went from his forehand to his backhand to score past the right pad of Wedgewood.

“We knew how good of a team they were going to be and knew what kind of game we needed to bring,” Frank said. “I think if we can kind of get those mental mistakes out of our game, put a full 60 minutes together, we'd be hard to stop.”

Makar appeared to make it 4-2 at 11:05 of the third period, but the Capitals challenged the play for goaltender interference, and the call was reversed following a video review.

However, Lehkonen did push it to 4-2 at 12:32 when he finished a pass from MacKinnon short side past Lindgren's glove. MacKinnon stole the puck from Capitals forward Justin Sourdif at the right boards and skated down on a 2-on-1 with Lehkonen before making the pass across.

MacKinnon then made it 5-2 at 16:30, finishing a pass from Necas inside the left post from the slot.

NOTES: MacKinnon became the 10th active player to reach 1,100 points and the second player to hit the mark in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … MacKinnon also passed Peter Stastny (313) for the second most multipoint games in Avalanche/Nordiques history. The only player with more is Joe Sakic (473). … Ovechkin (1,665) moved within four points of Wayne Gretzky (1,669 with the Edmonton Oilers) for the fifth-most by a player with a single franchise. ... Alex Barre-Boulet was recalled from the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on Monday and made his Avalanche debut, finishing with an assist in 3:46 of ice time.