MacKinnon thrilled with Avalanche’s hot start

EDMONTON – The Colorado Avalanche have been sending messages since the start of the season, but they made an even bigger statement Saturday.

Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and a pair of assists as the Western Conference-leading Colorado Avalanche crushed the Edmonton Oilers 9-1.

The Avalanche have only lost one game in regulation time through their first 15 NHL contests, improving to 9-1-5.

But of all their wins thus far this season, putting up nine goals on the road against Connor McDavid and the Oilers — a team that has been in the Stanley Cup final the last two years — that means something.

“Obviously two high-powered offensive teams, you probably would have thought nine goals total in the game, not just for one side,” said Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood, who registered 23 saves to collect the win in net. “Obviously credit to us, we kind of exposed them in a few spots and were able to capitalize. We did a good job defensively.”

MacKinnon, who stretched his points streak to eight games, admitted things are really rolling for the Avalanche right now.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ve been playing really well,” he said. “We have one regulation loss in 15 games. Solid hockey. Five-on-five has been great, our penalty kill has been great, our power play has been tough, but we haven’t needed it yet, so hopefully we can get it going.”

Since he entered the league in 2013-14, MacKinnon has now recorded the third-most four-point games (30) behind only McDavid (41) and Nikita Kucherov (33). He also picked up the 700th even-strength point of his career, joining Joe Sakic as the only other player in franchise history to reach that mark.

Cale Makar, Parker Kelly and Jack Drury each had two-goal games and Gavin Brindley also scored for the Avalanche, who have registered at least a point in six straight games. Devon Toews chipped in with three assists.

“It’s a good confidence builder for our group. I think we got contributions all the way through our lineup,” said Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. “The fourth line got a couple of goals, the third line got a couple of goals and Cale and Mack had good nights, too.

“Cale got it started and Mack was chipping in along the way.”

Bednar said it was great to see so many players lower down in the lineup make significant contributions.

“You need it. You have to have it in this league,” Bednar said. “The top guys have been really good for us, they obviously lead the way for us on most nights, but the other lines have done a good job building an identity, they’re all a little bit different in certain ways and contributing in good ways on a nightly basis, which is nice to see.

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“It’s good depth and we’ve been relatively healthy, we’re missing a couple of guys, but have been relatively healthy at the start of the year and the buy-in has been good, and we’re getting some good results.”

It’s only the second time in franchise history that the Avalanche/Nordiques have scored nine goals on the road and the first time they have won a road game by a margin of eight or more goals.

On the Edmonton side of the ledger, the Oilers’ 9-1 loss ties the largest margin of defeat on home ice in franchise history matching a 10-2 loss at home to Buffalo on Jan. 27, 2009.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said his team is miles behind the level Colorado is playing at.

“Absolutely, we’re not even close,” Knoblauch said. “That’s a team that’s playing really well. We’re not. It’s not just one game. You look at the last few weeks, they’ve been going pretty well, and we have a lot of work to do.”

Edmonton dropped to 6-6-4.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2025.

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