SUNRISE, Fla. — Jonathan Drouin scored his first two goals of the season, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the struggling Florida Panthers on Saturday night. Panthers) 7-4.
Drouin made only his fifth appearance this season. He missed 16 games with an upper-body injury.
Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists for Colorado with goals from Drouin, Rantanen, Logan O’Connor and Samuel Girard. Oliver Kylington also scored for the Avalanche, who improved to 3-0-0 in a four-game road trip.
Cale Makar and Devon Toews each had two assists for Colorado.
Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell scored for Florida, which has dropped five of its last six games. Matthew Tkachuk and Mackie Samoskevich each had two assists for the Panthers.
Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon has played in his 812th game, one shy of Michel Goulet’s mark for fourth most in franchise history. Joe Sakic (1,378), Milan Hejduk (1,020) and Adam Foote (967) are the only players in the franchise (starting with the Quebec Nordiques) to have more.
Panthers: Reinhart has now scored in 13 consecutive games, tying him with Jonathan Huberdeau and Pavel Bure for the second-longest point streak in Florida history. Mike Hoffman had a 17-game streak for the Panthers in the 2018-19 season.
Florida was given 56 seconds of 5-on-3 hockey after Josh Manson was called on a Barkov hook with 15:54 left. Florida appeared to score 11 seconds later, but was waved off due to goalie interference on Tkachuk. Florida contested the call, lost, and Samoskevich went to the box for the ensuing delay penalty.
Makar currently has 100 multi-point games in his career.
Avalanche: Visit Tampa Bay on Monday.
Panthers: Host Washington on Monday.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
