Arizona Coyotes vs Colorado Avalanche Match Player Stats On Aug 19, 2020

Nathan MacKinnon scored twice in a four-point game as the Colorado Avalanche handed the Arizona Coyotes a second straight 7-1 shellacking Wednesday in Edmonton and advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs with a five-game victory.

Goalie Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves and Nazem Kadri also scored twice for the Avalanche, who emphatically won the opening round best-of-seven series. Colorado will await its opposition next round.

With a chance to go for the kill, the Avalanche came out strong and were rewarded when Kadri opened the scoring with his fifth goal since action resumed. Kadri, who scored twice in a three-point effort in Colorado's 7-1 Game 4 victory, set up shop in the slot and one-timed a quick pass from Gabriel Landeskog for the power-play goal at 4:39.

Then it was Sam Girard's turn to score a Colorado power-play goal and double the lead before the midway point of the first period. With a screen set, Girard unloaded a point shot that found the mark for his first career playoff goal at the 8:29 mark of the first.

Colorado's first-period onslaught didn't end there. Kadri converted a breakaway with a five-hole shot -- Andre Burakovsky chipped the puck past a defender to spring him -- with 88 seconds remaining in the period to make it a 3-0 game. The marker was Kadri's fifth of the series.

Arizona, which was without key forwards Nick Schmaltz and Conor Garland, provided some pushback to start the second period but couldn't hit the board before MacKinnon added a pair of goals 58 seconds apart midway through the frame.

Both were one-timers from the right side of the slot and both were set up by Mikko Rantanen. The big difference between the two was that his second tally was another man-advantage marker, his club's third of the game.

For good measure, 104 seconds before the period was done, MacKinnon sent a perfect point shot that that Nikita Zadorov deflected past besieged Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper to run the score to 6-0.

Arizona's Clayton Keller and Colorado's J.T. Compher traded goals in the final frame to round out the scoring.

Kuemper finished the game with 24 saves. He was pulled for the third period in favor of Antti Raanta, who stopped five of the six shots he faced.

--Field Level Media