Rantanen gets hat trick, Avalanche defeat Blues for 7th straight win

ST. LOUIS — Mikko Rantanen scored his seventh NHL hat trick for the Colorado Avalanche, who won their seventh straight game with a 4-3 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.

“It feels good to help the team and to get the win with it,” Rantanen said. “It’s always better. I try to help the team offensively and be responsible defensively.

Advertisement

“They’re a good team. They’re pushing for a playoff spot. We knew it was going to be a tough game. They had won four in a row before this. They had some chances, but Justus (Annunen) was good in net for us.”

Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to 16 games (10 goals, 22 assists) with an assist, and Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin each had two assists for the Avalanche (44-20-5), who have outscored their opponents 31-13 during the winning streak. Annunen made 30 saves.

“I like (that) the team was resilient,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We played hard. This is one the best stretches we’ve seen them play all year long.

“Tonight’s game wasn’t perfect. I thought we had some trouble managing the puck. We’ve been going through games without turnovers, and tonight we had more than a handful. You’ve got to give them credit. They checked hard. We didn’t manage the puck the way we’d like to. Guys played hard and stayed with it. We found a way to get the lead back. All in all, a great (four-game) road trip. Got to be happy with it.”

Nathan Walker had a goal and an assist for the Blues (36-30-3), who had their four-game winning streak end. Jordan Binnington made 31 saves.

“Guys played hard, guys competed, guys battled,” St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn said. “That’s a good team over there that has a lot of firepower, a lot of skill. Right there, and unfortunate to not come away with at least one point tonight.”

Rantanen scored his second of the game to tie it 3-3 at 18:46 of the second period. He redirected a pass from Drouin in the slot past Binnington after Blues forward Jordan Kyrou was called for tripping at 18:24.

“It was a penalty. It’s a bad penalty,” St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. “It’s a penalty you can’t take at that time of the game.”

Rantanen completed the hat trick with a one-timer in the slot after Nichushkin forced a turnover in the offensive zone to make it 4-3 at 4:15 of the third period.

Rantanen put the Avalanche ahead 1-0 at 6:36 of the first period with a wrist shot in the slot off a centering pass from MacKinnon.

“It was great. I got great passes,” Rantanen said. “Nate made a great pass, a backhand on the first one. On the power play, Drouin is a very versatile player. He made a nice pass. Val obviously squeezed the puck a little bit and then slid it over. It’s fun to play with those guys, for sure.”

Walker tied it 1-1 at 8:48. He took a pass from Scott Perunovich as he came off the bench and beat Annunen with a wrist shot in the left circle.

Alexey Toropchenko gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 4:44 of the second period when he crashed the net and put in a rebound in front.

“Yeah, I thought we were playing pretty well,” Walker said of the fourth line. “We seemed to get the puck in deep and kind of do what we do. It just happened for us tonight.”

Casey Mittelstadt tied it 2-2 at 6:41 with a snap shot in the slot off a pass from Samuel Girard from below the goal line.

Schenn gave the Blues a 3-2 lead at 8:43 when he one-timed a pass from Jake Neighbours on a 2-on-1.

NOTES: MacKinnon has 50 points (17 goals, 33 assists) in 46 career games against St. Louis. … Rantanen has 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in his past 13 games. … Neighbours has four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak. … Mittelstadt has four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak.