MacKinnon Had Four Points — Lehkonen Made Colorado's Comeback Possible
GOATIFYFor eight minutes, Pittsburgh looked ready to turn a road game in Denver into a statement. Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust scored 29 seconds apart, the Penguins controlled the puck, and Colorado was staring at a 2-0 deficit. By the final horn on Friday, October 16, the Avalanche had scored five unanswered goals and won 5-2. Nathan MacKinnon finished with a goal and three assists, but the comeback began with the less glamorous work of Artturi Lehkonen.
Lehkonen scored twice, first to stop the early slide and then to tie the game just 25 seconds into the second period. Gabriel Landeskog supplied the go-ahead goal, rookie T.J. Hughes scored his first in the NHL, and MacKinnon closed the night with a power-play one-timer. The final score made Colorado's response look comfortable. The path to it was anything but.
That contrast is what makes the result worth examining. Colorado showed it can overturn a bad start through speed, net-front pressure and elite passing. It also demonstrated why coach Jared Bednar continues to ask for a complete 60-minute performance, even when his stars are capable of rescuing a night in spectacular fashion.
Pittsburgh's 29-second burst exposed Colorado's first-period problem
The first period was a warning about how quickly a talented opponent can punish a sluggish start. Malkin opened the scoring at 8:28, carrying the puck into a dangerous area before releasing a shot while losing his balance. Twenty-nine seconds later, Crosby found Rust on a two-on-one and Pittsburgh had a two-goal lead. Both finishes were impressive, but the ease with which the Penguins found those chances should concern Colorado more than the score itself.
Pittsburgh outshot the Avalanche 14-5 in the opening 20 minutes. That is not the profile of a team dictating play in its own building. Colorado was slow to create sustained offensive-zone pressure and repeatedly gave its opponent a chance to attack with speed. The 2-0 deficit therefore reflected a genuine imbalance, not merely two unlucky bounces. The Avalanche needed to change the way the game was being played, not simply hope their finishing talent would rescue them.
There was also a milestone hidden in Pittsburgh's second goal. Crosby's pass to Rust was his 1,110th NHL assist, moving him past Joe Thornton into seventh place on the league's all-time list. It was another reminder of the vision that makes Crosby dangerous even when he is not the player scoring. With Malkin finding the net and Crosby creating, the Penguins' veteran core briefly had the game exactly where it wanted it.
Lehkonen's first goal at 11:01 changed the score before it changed the broader trend. MacKinnon drove wide and found his linemate arriving near the crease, giving Colorado a route back to 2-1. The Avalanche still went into the intermission behind, and Pittsburgh's shot advantage remained a fair reflection of the period. But the goal mattered because it prevented an ugly opening from becoming a three-goal mountain.
Bednar's postgame message was revealing: he believes Colorado knows the habits that make it successful, but has struggled to sustain them for all 60 minutes. The win does not erase that problem. Blackwood eventually finished with 29 saves and helped keep the Penguins from adding to their lead, yet a team with Colorado's ambitions cannot depend on its goaltender and star forwards to undo the same slow start every night. The second period would show what a more assertive version of the Avalanche looks like.
Lehkonen turned pressure into goals — and gave MacKinnon room to create
The comeback's defining shift came almost immediately after the first intermission. Just 25 seconds into the second period, Lehkonen reacted to a rebound from MacKinnon's shot, controlled the airborne puck and finished from close range. The sequence was awkward rather than elegant, but it was exactly the kind of goal Colorado needed. Lehkonen had already scored on the rush; now he had tied the game by winning the battle nearest the net.
That combination explains why he is such an effective partner for MacKinnon. A playmaker who can break defensive structure with speed needs someone prepared to arrive in uncomfortable areas. Lehkonen does not wait for every pass to land perfectly on his stick. He tracks rebounds, fights for position and makes himself available at the moment a defense is scrambling. His first goal came from reading a fast-developing rush; his second came from refusing to give up on a loose puck.
The turning point became even more dramatic a few minutes later. MacKinnon drew a penalty shot when Erik Karlsson hooked him on a breakaway. Silovs made the save at 4:09, a moment that could have shifted confidence back toward Pittsburgh. Instead, just 15 seconds later, Nelson collected a rebound and found Landeskog on the far side of the crease. The Avalanche captain finished for a 3-2 lead. Pittsburgh had survived the penalty shot only to concede on the next decisive sequence.
Colorado's second-period advantage was not limited to the scoreboard. After being outshot 14-5 in the first, the Avalanche turned the shot count around 18-10 in the middle frame. More importantly, the chances began arriving from connected plays rather than isolated individual efforts. MacKinnon and Necas combined to move defenders, Lehkonen attacked the dangerous spaces, and Nelson's pass gave Landeskog a simple but valuable finish. The entire attack looked more synchronized.
It would be too simple to say the Avalanche merely decided to try harder. Their improved pressure changed Pittsburgh's choices. Defenders had less time to clear rebounds, the Penguins could not exit the zone as cleanly, and the same Colorado players who had been chasing the game were now forcing hurried decisions. Lehkonen's two goals supplied the emotional spark, but the larger shift came from the Avalanche finally playing at the pace and with the support structure their coach expects. That is a repeatable blueprint, provided they do not wait until the second period to use it.
Hughes' first NHL goal and MacKinnon's finish made the comeback bigger than one night
Colorado's fourth goal gave the night a personal milestone as well as a cushion. With 5:03 left in the second period, MacKinnon found T.J. Hughes near the crease and the rookie redirected the puck home for his first NHL goal. The power play had expired only four seconds earlier, but the attacking movement carried into even strength. Hughes was in the right place because he trusted the passing lane and stayed available for the final touch.
For an undrafted player who starred at Michigan, the moment carries a different kind of weight from another MacKinnon highlight. Hughes earned his opening-night place after a strong preseason. His first regular-season goal arrived when Colorado needed contributions beyond its established stars. A rookie scoring against Crosby and Malkin's Penguins is useful evidence that the Avalanche can find value deeper in the lineup.
MacKinnon completed his four-point performance with a power-play one-timer from the left circle at 15:06 of the third period, converting a feed from Makar. His final line was one goal and three assists, giving him 16 points through eight games this season. Necas added three assists and Makar two. Colorado's top-end skill remains its clearest advantage: several players can turn a half-chance into a goal before a defense has reset.
Colorado finished one-for-four on the power play and killed all three Pittsburgh advantages. New assistant Brett McLean was behind the Avalanche bench for the first time after Dave Hakstol left for Arizona State. That offered an early glimpse of a changing coaching arrangement, not proof of a finished special-teams formula. The Avalanche also dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, complicating line management during a busy schedule.
Pittsburgh faces a different problem. The Penguins received excellent early moments from Malkin and Crosby, yet still lost for the fifth time in six games. Their power play failed on three opportunities, and the lead disappeared when Colorado controlled the dangerous areas around Silovs. Crosby's milestone and the 2-0 advantage show there is still creativity in the veteran core. Protecting a lead against a fast opponent requires more sustained defensive structure than Pittsburgh managed here.
MacKinnon's four points will headline the box score, and rightly so: he was directly involved in four of Colorado's five goals. Yet Lehkonen's two finishes changed the temperature of the game before it could slip away. Landeskog and Hughes then rewarded a more assertive Avalanche attack, while Blackwood stabilized after the early burst.
Colorado can take two lessons from the same 5-2 victory. Its best players can create decisive offense against a veteran opponent, even after a miserable opening stretch. But relying on a comeback is a fragile habit, especially against teams capable of protecting a lead. The next challenge is to produce the energy of that second period from the opening faceoff, rather than waiting until two goals have already gone in.
