Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, Cale Makar had a goal and two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Nashville Predators 7-2 in Game 1 of their first-round series in Denver on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup, Artturi Lehkonen and Devon Toews also scored, Mikko Rantanen had three assists and betflix68<\/a> Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 shots for the Avalanche.<\/p>\n Andrew Cogliano had a goal before leaving the game with an upper-body injury in the second period.<\/p>\n Matt Duchene scored two goals for the Predators, and Mikael Granlund had two assists and Connor Ingram had 30 saves in relief of David Rittich<\/a>.Nashville’s top goaltender, Juuse Saros, is out with an ankle sprain.<\/p>\n Game 2 is Thursday night in Denver.<\/p>\n Colorado jumped on the Predators early. MacKinnon opened the scoring 2:20 into the game, and Toews made it 2-0 off a power play when he beat Rittich 22 seconds after MacKinnon’s goal.<\/p>\n Nashville had a chance to cut into the lead when Toews went off for roughing at 6:47, but it was Colorado that converted.Mattias Ekholm lost control of the puck in the slot, and Cogliano picked it up and beat Rittich at 8:30.<\/p>\n The Avalanche struck again when Makar skated in on Rittich and roofed a shot over his left shoulder at 12:15 to make it 4-0. Lehkonen finished off the scoring barrage when he beat Rittich to the short side at 15:04.<\/p>\n Ingram replaced Rittich after he allowed five goals on 13 shots.<\/p>\n