Some friendly fire sent Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon to the locker room near the end of the second period of Monday’s Game 4 against the Wild in St. Paul.
Avs defenseman Devon Toews, on the left side of the Colorado net, tried to clear a puck that MacKinnon didn’t see until it hit him square in the nose. MacKinnon immediately dropped his stick and crumpled to the ice while covering his bleeding face with both hands.
“Yeah, it wasn’t nice,” Avs forward Martin Necas said. “But thatap kind of part of the game. I’ve been there. Itap nice that it is nothing serious and he was able to come back.”
After a trainer ran onto the ice, MacKinnon skated to the locker room with a towel over his face. Blood was all over the ice and his jersey. The play came with just a little more than a minute remaining in the second period with the Avs and Wild tied 1-1.
Nathan MacKinnon was shaken up after taking a puck to the face.
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet)
After getting treatment in the locker room, MacKinnon was back on the Avs bench for the start of the third period.
Colorado prevailed, 5-2, to take a 3-1 lead in the series. The Avs can close it out Wednesday night in Game 5 at Ball Arena.
After the game, MacKinnon said the puck hit him like a pancake in the nose and mouth but he didn’t need stitches.
“If he was going to be able to get out there, he was going to be out there,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t think that was ever in doubt. I just felt for him because I just went through that and it doesn’t feel very good. You’re just hoping your guy is OK. Thatap the main thing, and then you feel for him because it sucks.”
