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COLORADO AVALANCHE

Nathan MacKinnon takes home an honor for his dazzling play in Finland

MacKinnon had a ridiculous seven assists in just two games against Columbus, with the Avs earning wins by final scores of 6-3 and 5-1

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Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon keeps winning.

Fresh of his first Stanley Cup title in June, Mackinnon won a different type of honor on Monday. Sure, it’s not as exciting as a championship, but it’s still a cool award. MacKinnon was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week after his excellent two games in Finland.

MacKinnon had a ridiculous seven assists in just two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the Avs earning wins by final scores of 6-3 and 5-1. Think about that for a second. Colorado scored 11 goals and MacKinnon assisted on seven of them. That’s wild.

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He leads the Avalanche in points on the year with 19. Mikko Rantanen, who scored a hat trick in his home country, has 16. Cale Makar has 13 and despite battling a “lower-body injury,” Valeri Nichushkin checks in with 12 points.

MacKinnon established a record for helpers in a regular-season NHL game played outside North America with four assists (including three in the third period) in the 6-3 victory. He added three more helpers in the 5-1 win to become the NHL’s all-time leader in both assists (7) and points (8) in contests staged outside North America.

The Avs got back on track after a little bit of a Stanley Cup hangover to start the year, but now boast a 6-4-1 record, good for 13 points. They trail the Dallas Stars (17 points) and Winnipeg Jets (15 points) for the top spot in the Central Division.

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Colorado, and MacKinnon, will be back in action at home on Thursday night against the Nashville Predators. We’ll see what No. 29 has in store for an encore.

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Will Petersen Denver Sports Analyst

Will Petersen is a digital sports analyst for denversports.com and a Colorado native. Will earned a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 2012 and has spent the past decade covering Denver sports. Follow Will on Twitter:… Read more

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