Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen scored his 200th career goal in a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon at Enterprise Center.
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The 26-year-old forward did it on the first success of the match, when he took advantage of a fine game from Nathan MacKinnon to move the strings. It was his 35th goal this campaign.
Rantanen thus became the fourth Finn to cross this plateau fastest in the National Hockey League (NHL), after Teemu Selanne, Jari Kurri and Tomas Sandstrom. The representative of the “Avs” did it in 462 games.
Against the Blues, the number 96 of the formation of Colorado also provided an assist on one of the two successes of defender Bowen Byram. It was the second time in his young career that the full-back hit the target twice in the same game. On these two nets, Quebecer Samuel Girard was an accomplice.
The Avalanche’s other success came from the stick of Valeri Nichushkin, who took advantage of a power play to beat goaltender Jordan Binnington.
It was Samuel Blais who was the only Blues player to register for the brand. It was his second goal in four games with the St. Louis club, since the trade that brought him to Missouri from the New York Rangers.
The “Preds” demolish the Panthers
At Bridgestone Arena, Nashville Predators defensemen Roman Josi and Ryan McDonagh each had three points in a 7-3 win over the Florida Panthers.
The first amassed a goal and two assists, while the second was an accomplice to three successes.
Forward Tommy Novak also stood out with two goals. Other Preds goals were scored by Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, Colton Sissons, and Yakov Trenin.
The Nashville team thus ended a short streak of two losses. At the Panthers, Nick Cousins, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart threaded the needle. Goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky was the starter for this duel, but was chased before the half hour mark. He gave up four times on 11 shots. Sent into the fray as reinforcements, Spencer Knight gave up two goals on 14 shots.
The Montmagny native deprived goaltender Justus Annunen of his first career NHL shutout. The latter was playing his first game with the Avalanche in 2022-2023 and faced 20 shots. At the other end of the rink, Binnington received 33 shots.