MacKinnon has 2 goals, assist for Avalanche in win against Predators

Juuse Saros made 29 saves for the Predators (8-17-6), who have lost nine of their last 10 games.

“Obviously, it’s heartbreaking in different ways. I thought we played a really good game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “We looked at our identity, which is starting to come. Didn’t get the result tonight. Put ourselves in a position. Only a couple of mistakes end up in our back of the net and we didn’t make many tonight. The third goal hurt a bit and was a bit difficult to overcome, but we kept at it.”

Ross Colton gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with a one-timer from the front left net that went wide at 11:32 of the second period. Casey Mittelstadt outmuscled Adam Wilsby behind the net before going in front to Colton.

“We kind of battled it in the first, but in the second and third I thought we kind of dialed it in and played our game,” Colton said. “‘Toewser’ (Devon Toews) got it up the wall, did a good job cycling it down, and then ‘Mitsy,’ he’s really dangerous down there. He’s so shifty and skilled. You just have to find a little soft area to him and he’ll give it to you. Then just popped into the opening and he gave me a good pass.”

MacKinnon extended the lead to 2-0 with a top-shelf snap over the glove of Saros at 18:52. Rantanen forced a turnover from Marc Del Gaizo on his own half wall and fed MacKinnon on the fly.

“I saw it down there and just said, ‘Yeah, I’m thankful I’m not on that end of it anymore,'” Blackwood said. “I’ve seen it too many times where there’s nothing, nothing, nothing, and then they just have a ton of goals. So you know when you play a team like this, you just have to be patient and they will come.”