Martin Necas’s late goal lifts Colorado Avalanche over Edmonton Oilers 5-4

Colorado Avalanche's Cale Makar (8) and Edmonton Oilers' Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) battle for the puck as goalie MacKenzie Blackwood (39) watches during second period NHL action in Edmonton on Friday, February 7, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

A star-studded showdown between the Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers saw Colorado’s best players shine a bit brighter.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists and Cale Makar had two goals and an assist as the Avalanche beat Edmonton 5-4 on Friday for Colorado’s second consecutive victory in the final game for both teams before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

“You need your big guys to be at their best and carry the load every night,” said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. “You’re hoping to get the secondary support on most nights to help you win, but when you’re coming in on a back-to-back and there’s lots of special teams, there’s a bigger role for them to play and they stepped up tonight and got the job done.”

Artturi Lehkonen and Martin Necas also scored for the Avalanche (33-22-2), who have won four of their last five, including a 4-2 victory over Calgary on Thursday night.

MacKinnon had four points against Edmonton to go with three assists against the Flames, giving him a league-leading 87 points on the season, four ahead of Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, who had two goals, including his 40th of the campaign.

“It was a weird game, lot of penalties, not a ton of 5-on-5, but the chances that we had we buried and I thought overall we did a pretty good job defensively on their top players,” said MacKinnon. “Obviously it’s not easy, but everyone did a solid job tonight.”

Oilers star forward Connor McDavid was held off the scoresheet.

Necas scored his 20th of the season after getting a pair of goals against Calgary the night before.

“It was a good bounce back,” he said. “It was a tough game, they have really talented players and we stuck with it and it was a great win.”

Makar leads all NHL defenceman in goals (22) and points (63) and is on pace for career years in both. The most goals he has had was 28 in 2021-22, the year he won the Norris Trophy as top defenceman, while his top season for points was 90 last year.

The first period saw each team score twice for a total of four goals in a span of just two minutes and 34 seconds.

“It was pretty back-and-forth and there was a lot of special teams going on as well, so the rhythm of the game was a little different tonight,” said Bednar. ”For us to be able to come in here and grab two points is really big, especially on a back-to-back.

--Shane Jones

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2025.