One of the reasons the Colorado Avalanche are doing so well is that Mikko Rantanen is having a stellar start to the season. The Avs are 7-2-2 and Rantanen has 20 points to lead the NHL in scoring.
He picked up four points (one goal, three assists) Friday night in a 6=3 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators.
“Obviously I’m just trying to help the team as much as I can in scoring and my all-around game, play defense as well,” Rantanen said. “It’s very important to win the hockey games. My linemates are helping me a lot. It’s a lot of fun to play on a line with those two guys. The whole team is playing good right now. It’s still early in the season so we have to keep going.”
The Avs trailed after 40 minutes of play, 3-2, but struck four times in the third to get the win.
“We weren’t ready to play in the first, we were sloppy with the puck, but the way we bounced back in the second and third periods, that’s what winning hockey teams do,” Rantanen said.
Philipp Grubauer,made 21 saves and spoiled the return of Matt Duchene to Denver; Duchene had two goals for the Sens in the loss.
“My favorite part, for me, was the tribute and the reception from the fans,” Duchene said. “Meant a lot to me. I teared up. I had so much emotion going until midway through the second. It was a bit of a grind.”
Ryan Dzingel also scored for the Senators.
Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Carl Soderberg, Matt Nieto, and Samuel Girard also scored for the Avs.
“I love watching our team play like that,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “The aggressiveness on our forecheck, hunting pucks down and staying on pucks, winning battles. Their reloads from the goal line to the tops of circles, the blue line and into the offensive zone, to turning pucks back.
“We were going to the net, there was a purpose. Ideally, you’d like to play like that 60 minutes every night but I don’t know how feasible that is. But it’s good to know that we have that in us.”
[WATCH: All Senators vs. Avalanche highlights]
Craig Anderson made 31 saves
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, leaving here. It was something I never wanted to do, it was something I felt I had to do. Sometimes that’s life and that’s the business. Just the signs in warmup and the people that were being so kind meant a lot to me. You touch the puck, you’re going to get booed. Avs fans are competitive and you kind of expect it,” Duchene said after the game.
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