PITTSBURGH — Nathan MacKinnon has plenty more fight in him.
The Avalanche center escaped what the team feared was a broken bone in his hand from a fight against Minnesota’s Matt Dumba on March 27, but speaking publicly for the first time about it here on Tuesday night, MacKinnon said he’d do it all over again after leading Colorado to a 6-4 victory over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
“I know what I did was the right thing,” he said of fighting Dumba in response to the defenseman’s mid-ice check on Avs winger Mikko Rantanen. “And even if I was out for a couple of weeks, there’s no regrets. That’s just our team culture and I would do it again and get hurt.”
MacKinnon, who missed the ensuing game in Calgary after his fight with Dumba, scored two goals on three shots Tuesday to lead the depleted Avs to a consecutive-game, season sweep over the Penguins.
Pittsburgh fell 3-2 at Ball Arena on Saturday in a game MacKinnon had two assists to become the first member of the 2013 draft class to reach 400 in a career.
“Two solid games by our group. That’s a really good team,” MacKinnon said of the Penguins (41-20-10). “I think that’s one of the best teams we’ve played, definitely out east. We thought after Saturday that they’re really, really good because that was a fun game. Tonight we got some scoring. That was a gutsy win by us with a lot of guys out.”
NHL-leading Colorado (50-14-6), which built a 5-2 lead before allowing two late goals, became the first team to reach 50 wins — doing so for just the third time in club history.
“We’ve built a strong culture here, a lot of amazing players,” MacKinnon said. “Bedsy (coach Jared Bednar) has done a great job, obviously Joe (Sakic), putting this team together. But it doesn’t mean anything. We won the President’s (Trophy) last year. It doesn’t matter if you’re an eight (seed) or one (seed). We just want to get in and try to do some damage and win it.”
The Avs climbed to a league-high 106 points — fourth-most in club history — with 12 remaining games. They are on pace to surpass the team record of 118 points, set by the 2000-01 Stanley Cup champions.
J.T. Compher, Josh Manson, Darren Helm and Artturi Lehkonen (empty net) also scored for the Avs, who welcomed rookie defenseman Bo Byram back to the lineup after nearly three months on paid personal leave.
Byram, who sustained at least two concussions in 2021, logged 15:02 and produced two shots.
“That was a pretty impressive first (NHL) game for not playing since Jan. 10. He was involved right away,” Bednar said of Byram.
MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game to give Colorado a 3-1 lead at 12:00 of the second period. He had time and space in the high slot and wristed the puck high over the right shoulder of goalie Tristan Jarry.
It was the second goal in a span of 2:07 for the Avs, who took a 2-1 lead at 9:53 with Compher’s tap-in off an excellent attack to the net by linemate Alex Newhook. Compher buried the rebound off Newhook’s shot.
Pittsburgh got within 3-2 at 17:43 of the period on an unassisted goal from Evan Rodrigues, who beat Manson off the wall through the neutral zone and powered in alone on Kuemper. The puck bounced off the goalie’s pads and barely crossed the goal line.
Manson used a big slap shot from the blue line to make it 4-2 early in the third period, and Helm scored on a breakaway with about five minutes remaining. Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel scored with Jarry on the bench with a sixth attacker and the teams traded goals in the final minute.
Footnotes. Forward Valeri Nichushkin was scratched because of a non-COVID illness. He and Newhook, who was also ill, didn’t participate in the morning skate while traveling on their own to Pittsburgh. The Avs were already missing forwards Gabe Landeskog (knee) and Nazem Kadri (upper-body). … Defenseman Sam Girard was a full morning-skate participant and is nearing a return from a monthlong absence because of a back injury. Defenseman Ryan Murray (arm) remains out indefinitely. … The Avs will remain in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and practice at PPG Paints Arena. They will fly to Winnipeg on Thursday to prepare for Friday’s game against the Jets. The trip concludes on Saturday at Edmonton.
