Don't look now, but the Colorado Avalanche are on a winning streak. The Avalanche won their second straight game by beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 on Tuesday night. That came after they beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 on Saturday.
Tuesday, it was rookie Mikko Rantanen who did the heavy lifting. The 20-year-old scored three times — once in each period — on his way to the first hat-trick of his career.
He scored his first of the night 30 seconds into the game to put Colorado ahead 1-0. His little flick from way out there somehow snuck in.
Rantanen's second came off a deflection. He was able to redirect a Mark Barberio blast just enough for the puck to get past Canadiens goaltender Carey Price.
The Avalanche held a five-on-three advantage when Rantanen completed the hat-trick. He one-timed a Barberio pass toward the near post and in.
As Avalanche P.R. pointed out, Rantanen (20 years, 101 days) became the second-youngest Avalanche player to record a hat-trick. Nathan MacKinnon accomplished that feat in 2015 at 19 years, 174 days.
Rantanen and goaltender Calvin Pickard, who stopped 27 shots on net to record Colorado's third shutout all year, helped the Avalanche win back-to-back games for the first time since late November.
Colorado improved to 14-33-2 with the win.
Subscribe to Denverite's weekly sports newsletter here.
