MacKinnon’s 5-point effort lifts Avs to 5-4 OT triumph over Canucks

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Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and three assists, leading the visiting Colorado Avalanche to a 5-4 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks in NHL action Sunday at Rogers Arena.

Gavin Brindley scored the winner 68 seconds into OT for Colorado (10-1-5), with Artturi Lehkonen adding the other two goals. Mackenzie Blackwood making 29 saves for the win in goal.

Linus Karlsson, Kiefer Sherwood, Drew O’Connor and Jake DeBrusk tallied for the Canucks (8-8-1) in the back-and-forth contest. Kevin Lankinen, starting on back-to-back nights, took the loss between the pipes for Vancouver, making 27 stops.

MacKinnon opened the scoring 6:41 into the first period, taking a nice feed from Valeri Nichushkin and finding a wide-open net behind Lankinen to extend his point-scoring streak to nine games.

He scored again on the power play shortly thereafter, making it his 58th career two-goal game.

The Canucks battled back, with Karlsson scoring his first of the year, making a nifty move to bring the puck from below the goal-line and between his own feat to beat Blackwood.

Colorado held a 2-1 advantage after 20 minutes, despite being outshot 17-9.

The red-hot Sherwood scored the only goal of the season period, his 10th of the season, slipping a backhand past Blackwood at 1:44. Vancouver held a 26-16 shots advantage after two periods.

Lehkonen gave Colorado a 3-2 lead just 28 seconds into the third, deflecting in a nice pass from Brett Burns.

O’Connor evened things at 3-3 seven minutes later with a shorthanded tally, racing down the left win and firing a rolling puck over the glove of Blackwood. O’Connor hads seven points in his last six games, and it was his second shorthanded marker of the year.

Lehkonen restored the Colorado lead on the power play at 9:47, knocking home a rebound off a Martin Necas one-timer.

Yet again the Canucks answered back, making it 4-4 on the power play at 16:59, tipping home a pass from Brock Boeser. It was DeBrusk’s fifth of the year, with four coming on the power play.

Brindley banged home his own rebound after a rink-length dash for the OT winner.

The Canucks are back in action Tuesday (7 p.m.) when they host the Winnipeg Jets.

NOTES: The Canucks had been 4-0 in games going more than 60 minutes heading into Sunday’s contest, while the Avs were 0-5… MacKinnon, who also had four points Saturday in a 9-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers, now leads the league in scoring with 29 points… Nichushkin and Cale Makar had two assists each for Colorado… Centre Elias Pettersson won 18 of 29 faceoffs for the Canucks… Colorado was 2-for-3 on the power play, while the Canucks were 1-for-5.