In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche posted six goals in the second period Thursday night as they defeated the Nashville Predators, 9-4.
Joonas Donskoi had a hat trick for the Avs, his first NHL trick.
“That felt good,” Donskoi said. “I don’t think I’ve ever scored a hat trick in any league, so it was fun.”
The win snapped an ugly five-game losing skid.
Pavel Francouz made 20 saves in the win.
“We’ve been talking about scoring more goals,” Donskoi said. “We’ve been struggling the last couple of games finding the back of the net. So that was the main focus for tonight, getting more guys to the net and for our [defensemen] to find the lanes to get the pucks to the net.”
This one was just not a good watch for the Preds.
“I’m going to be honest, you’re not going to get much tonight, so I’m going to go and address it with them and we’ll take care of things,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said.
Craig Smith, Matt Duchene, Ryan Ellis, and Ryan Ellis scored for the Predators.
“I feel like we lost every battle,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “We didn’t compete. I mean, we got embarrassed out there. I think most of the things came from us. Even in the first, I thought we didn’t play that well. We took too many penalties, we needed way more chances, and the second was even worse.”
Andre Burakovsky, Cale Makar, Ryan Graves, Matt Nieto, and Matt Calvert all scored for the Avs.
“We didn’t play well the last couple games, but we definitely bounced back,” Burakovsky said. “I think everyone was good today, everyone was on their toes. Everyone was doing the dirty work, everyone was putting in the work. We just cleaned up things and it worked and good things happened.
“We were talking about we had to bounce back after having a dry streak for a bit (two goals in previous three games). We had a meeting after the last game (a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday) and I just think we all came together as a group.”
Nikita Zadorov and Nathan MacKinnon (goal) but did not play in the third period with an upper body injury.
“I don’t know on [Zadorov], but with Nate, it was precautionary,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Avalanche highlights]
Pekka Rinne got the start, but was given the hook after giving up five of the goals to the Avs and making just 17 saves.
Juuse Saros did not fare much better and made 19 saves in relief.
“They’re a heck of a team over there, they have a ton of speed. (Colorado general manager) Joe (Sakic) has done an unbelievable job over there with their team, and we’re going to need a better effort against them the rest of the season,” Duchene said.
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