Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon of Halifax, Nova Scotia had the first four goal game of his National Hockey League career on Thursday. He accomplished the feat in a 6-4 Avalanche win over the Ottawa Senators at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. Prior to Thursday, MacKinnon had six three-goal games in the NHL.
MacKinnon opened the scoring at 2:43 of the first period on the power-play with an all-Canadian goal from Jonathan Drouin of Ste-Agathe, Quebec and Cale Makar of Calgary, Alberta. MacKinnon then tied the game at two from Valeri Nichushkin at 18:28 of the first period. MacKinnon registered his hat trick at 6:16 of the third period from Devon Toews of Abbotsford, British Columbia and Nichushkin to tie the game at four, and then scored into the empty net for an insurance marker from Nichushkin to close out the scoring with 23 seconds left in the game.
MacKinnon was one of two Canadians with a multi-point game. Makar had two assists.
In 2023-24, MacKinnon has 18 goals and a NHL-leading 35 assists for 53 points. He is a +9 with 24 penalty minutes, 20 power-play points, two game-winning goals, 149 shots on goal, 258 faceoff wins, 29 blocked shots, 22 hits, 6 takeaways, and 39 giveaways. MacKinnon’s game-winning goals in 2023-24 came in a 6-4 Avalanche win over the Carolina Hurricanes on October 21 and in a 6-4 Avalanche win over the Calgary Flames on December 11.
With the win, the Avalanche improve to a record of 20 wins, 11 regulation losses and two losses in extra time for 42 points. They are in third place in the Central Division and one point back of the Winnipeg Jets.
