NHL - Central - Saturday, November 14, 2015

Colorado @ Montreal Canadiens 6-1
Nathan MacKinnon's revamped line led the Colorado Avalanche to another big win during their longest road trip of the season. MacKinnon had three points, including goals 13 seconds apart in the first, and Colorado extended its winning streak to three games with a 6-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre.
Mikhail Grigorenko and Matt Duchene each had a goal and two assists. MacKinnon's line combined for nine points. Reto Berra made 39 saves, and Blake Comeau and John Mitchell scored for the Avalanche, who had won the first two games of their seven-game road trip.
The Avalanche took a 3-0 lead in the first despite being outshot 18-8 in the period. Colorado outshot Montreal 40-24. MacKinnon's two first-period tallies in 13 seconds were four seconds off Jon Klemm's team record for the fastest two goals scored by one player. Klemm scored goals nine seconds apart in the first period of a 6-5 overtime loss at the Calgary Flames on Oct. 17, 1997.
Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal, who lost in regulation for the first time in nine home games. Canadiens rookie Mike Condon allowed four goals on 11 shots in his first regulation loss in nine games. Condon, who is 6-1-2, made his seventh consecutive start with Carey Price sidelined because of a lower-body injury.
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog sat out the first game of his two-game suspension for his hit to the head of Brad Marchand on Thursday. It's disappointing the league decided to take that decision as anyone prepared to hit dirty dog, Brad Marchand should be given a medal not punished for it.
Matt Duchene assisted on Grigorenko's first Colorado goal, and assisted on MacKinnon's second. The line scored three times and combined for seven points in the first period. Grigorenko moved onto the Avalanche's top line Thursday when he replaced Landeskog, who was given a match penalty for his hit on Marchand.
After being set up by Grigorenko for the game-winning goal in Boston, Duchene made the play that led to his linemate's opening goal against Montreal, a shot along the ice past Condon from the slot at 3:26 of the first. MacKinnon put Colorado up 2-0 just after Condon stopped Jack Skille's backhand on a breakaway. Grigorenko tapped a loose puck to MacKinnon off a faceoff and the Avalanche center spun around and snapped a wrist shot past Condon for his seventh goal at 18:25. MacKinnon made it 3-0 with his eighth goal at 18:38 when he took a return pass from Grigorenko and tucked a backhand into the top right corner.
Gallagher scored his eighth goal at 8:48 of the second. Comeau restored Colorado's three-goal lead at 4-1 when he scored shorthanded at 12:55 for his 200th point in his 500th game. Condon, who had not previously allowed more than three goals, was replaced by Dustin Tokarski for the third period. Duchene scored his eighth goal on a power play at 11:05 of the third. Mitchell extended the lead to five with his fifth goal at 14:10. Tokarski made 11 saves. The six goals were the most allowed by Montreal, which lost 5-1 at the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 27.
With Alexei Emelin sidelined because of a lower-body injury, Greg Pateryn made his season debut for the Canadiens. Pateryn played with Tom Gilbert, and Nathan Beaulieu played with Jeff Petry in the first change to Montreal coach Michel Therrien's defense pairings this season.
"La Marseille," the national anthem of France, was played amid cheers and cellphone lights from the crowd after a moment of silence was observed for the victims of the Paris terror attacks Friday. The French flag was skated onto the ice by one of the two minor hockey players who greeted the Canadiens' entrance before the game.
"I was really touched, and I still can't believe what happened." said Berra, a native of Switzerland.

Nathan MacKinnon: "I don't think we're in the elite conversation of the League yet. We're working, we want to earn that, but whether they had a good night or not, we played very well. We stuck to our system and Reto played great for us, so we're happy with the win. It's always fun to score. It put a pretty commanding lead on the game at the end of the first and I think that took a lot of energy out of them. They made it 3-1, and then we scored shorthanded, 4-1, so it was a top-to-bottom effort and it definitely feels very good."
Patrick Roy: "[Berra] was phenomenal. He was very, very good. It's funny how it goes sometimes because the Canadiens dominated the first period and it was 3-0 for us. That doesn't happen often, but you take it when it happens. I felt we played better in the second. Even though we only had three shots, I thought we defended better than we did in the first."
Mikhail Grigorenko: "It was a lot of fun right from the start, right from the warmup. They're great players and all you've got to do is play our game and just don't try to change it, and it looked like we had pretty good chemistry out there and I'm really happy about my game."
Winnipeg Jets @ Nashville Predators 0-7
Craig Smith's big first period helped the Nashville Predators to a 7-0 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Bridgestone Arena. Smith had a goal and two assists in the first period after not scoring a goal since Oct. 17. The Predators scored four goals in the first period on nine shots. Jets goaltender Michael Hutchinson allowed three goals on seven shots before being pulled for Ondrej Pavelec, who made 23 saves. Winnipeg has lost five straight games.
Calle Jarnkrok gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 4:45 of the first period on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle. Jarnkrok entered the zone and took the pass from forward Cody Hodgson and shot it past Hutchinson. Smith gave the Predators a 2-0 lead at 5:58 on a wrist shot from in front of the net. Smith drove to the net, received the pass from defenseman Seth Jones and shot it past Hutchinson for his fourth goal. Jones and Mike Ribeiro closed out the scoring in the first to give Nashville a 4-0 lead.
James Neal made it 5-0 at 2:56 of the second period on a one-timer from the slot. Colin Wilson made the pass to Neal, who scored his team-leading eighth goal. Jarnkrok added another goal on the power play at 11:51 of the third period. He took a pass from defenseman Ryan Ellis and one-timed the puck past Pavelec. Mattias Ekholm scored a power-play goal less than two minutes later at 13:33 for a 7-0 lead. Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne made 20 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Winnipeg and Nashville combined for 156 penalty minutes, including 104 in the third period.

Paul Maurice: "No, I don't feel bad for our goaltenders. They're all a part of it. We had a lot of chances to stop the puck. It's a tough life."
Mark Stuart: "You just have to continue to go, no matter how hard it seems. After this stretch and especially this game, you feel down obviously, but we're professionals and we don't have time to feel down. We have another big game coming up, so we can't afford it."

Craig Smith: "It was good. It felt good. My line made some nice plays. A couple of other plays in some other games could've gone too, but tonight it went well. Our team's been playing great. I think every line is chipping in in some way. On top of that, we've got a great goaltender that's playing well so I think on any given night someone's going to step up and make a play and get a goal from each different line. Not every game is going to be like this, but we've got guys that have got the confidence to put one in."
Mike Ribeiro: "It was one of our best starts, that's for sure. I think we played solid. At the end of the second, we kind of let go a little bit. We've played some good games, but I think it's the first game that we've played the way we want to play and we win. All of the other four games we've played the way that we like, we didn't win. That's good that we got the win. We need to get a few together here and get on a roll."
Peter Laviolette: "I thought we did a pretty good job of staying focused. It was a different type of game. The message we had after the second period was just keep going with the simple game, north, putting it behind them and forechecking. If something was going to happen, they'd have to go 200 feet to make it happen."
Roman Josi: "[Pekka Rinne] was great. He was good all game. It's always tough if you're up 4-0 or 5-0, especially if you're a goalie. He played great all game and made all the saves."
Seth Jones: "Just play the game. You've got to stay out of the extra stuff after the whistles. They were trying to draw penalties obviously to gain momentum hoping one goal could maybe lead to another for them, but we just kept playing hockey and that's the most important thing that we did."

As is often the case in games that get out of hand early, things turned physical throughout the night before reaching a boiling point early in the third period at the 4:44 mark when the two teams combined for 13 penalties after a stoppage in play. Because the teams were in the process of changing lines there were additional players on the ice, and because just about all of them were penalized, including a goalie, it resulted in this hilarious picture of the Predators' penalty box that was suddenly overflowing with people.

Predators goalie Pekka Rinne was given a two-minute penalty for leaving the crease to join an altercation, while the other penalties were all for unsportsmanlike conduct.  The two teams combined for 35 penalties that added up to 156 minutes for the entire game.

Penalties

1st Period
01:40 WPG	Mark Stuart  Tripping against  Miikka Salomaki
07:11 NSH	Ryan Ellis  Hooking against  Andrew Copp
2nd Period
04:08 NSH	Mike Ribeiro  Tripping against  Nikolaj Ehlers
09:20 WPG	Chris Thorburn  Game misconduct
09:20 NSH	Barret Jackman  Game misconduct
09:20 WPG	Mark Stuart  Unsportsmanlike conduct
09:20 NSH	Austin Watson  Unsportsmanlike conduct
09:20 WPG	Chris Thorburn  Fighting (maj) against  Barret Jackman
09:20 NSH	Barret Jackman  Fighting (maj) against  Chris Thorburn
09:20 WPG	Adam Lowry  Fighting (maj) against  Colton Sissons
09:20 NSH	Colton Sissons  Fighting (maj) against  Adam Lowry
13:09 NSH	Mattias Ekholm  Slashing against  Drew Stafford
3rd Period
04:44 NSH	James Neal  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 NSH	Mike Fisher  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 NSH	Mattias Ekholm  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 NSH	Colin Wilson  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 NSH	Pekka Rinne  Goalie leave crease
04:44 WPG	Mark Scheifele  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 WPG	Blake Wheeler  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 WPG	Drew Stafford  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 WPG	Jacob Trouba  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 WPG	Mark Stuart  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 WPG	Andrew Copp  Unsportsmanlike conduct
04:44 NSH	Miikka Salomaki  Slashing against  Blake Wheeler
04:44 NSH	Ryan Ellis  Unsportsmanlike conduct
07:06 WPG	Mark Stuart  Interference against  Mike Ribeiro
07:16 WPG	Jacob Trouba  Misconduct (10 min)
07:16 WPG	Dustin Byfuglien  Misconduct (10 min)
07:16 NSH	Filip Forsberg  Misconduct (10 min)
07:16 NSH	Gabriel Bourque  Misconduct (10 min) against  Jacob Trouba
08:40 WPG	Ben Chiarot  Misconduct (10 min) against  Mike Ribeiro
08:40 WPG	Ben Chiarot  Interference against  Mike Ribeiro
08:40 NSH	Mike Ribeiro  Misconduct (10 min) against  Ben Chiarot
11:08 WPG	Tyler Myers  Hi stick - double minor against  Miikka Salomaki
11:08 WPG	Tyler Myers  Misconduct (10 min)