NHL: Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen enjoyed four points each against Detroit

Denver, Col. – Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen enjoyed four points each against the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche won 7-2 on Wednesday at Ball Arena.

Makar scored the first hat-trick of his career. He became the fourth Avalanche defenseman to score three goals in the same game. Sandys Ozolench (1999), Uwe Kropp (1995), and Brian Fogarty (1990) are the others to have achieved the feat.

For his part, MacKinnon turned 40 years old^H Goal of the season. It is also the second straight game in which he has scored four points. He now ranks first in the NHL with 109 points, four ahead of Nikita Kucherov.

Alexander Georgiev stopped 27 shots.

Colorado trailed 2-1 before MacKinnon scored on a power play late in the first period. Jared Bednar's team then scored six unanswered goals.

Jonathan Drouin scored the 12th goal^H Goal of the season as well as collecting the assist in 3^H From Makar. For his part, Jean-Luc Foudy scored the first goal of his career in the National Hockey League.

Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen are the first trio of Avalanche players to score four points for the first time since 1997. Peter Forsberg, Valery Kaminsky and Claude Lemieux have done so.

Red Wings goaltenders Alex Lyon and James Reimer were bombarded in this game with 55 shots directed at them. Rantanen (9) and MacKinnon (8) combined for 17 shots in the win.

Robbie Fabbri and David Perron were the only scorers for the visitors.

The Wings suffered their third defeat in a row.

Matthews is still the hero in Toronto

Auston Matthews scored the winning goal with 40 seconds left in overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Matthews' goal was his 12th overtime goal of his career and ranks second in team history behind Mats Sundin, who has scored 14 goals.

The Torontonians have won 9 of their last 11 games and are in third place in the Atlantic Division, behind the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins.

William Nylander scored the other goal in the win, while Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves, bettered only by Victor Olofsson. His counterpart, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, made 25 saves in his 10th straight start.

Samsonov has been excellent since not being claimed off waivers on January 1st. He has won 11 of his 14 games since playing briefly with the Marlies in the AHL.

Despite having top scorer Matthews with 54 goals this season, Nylander is the Leafs' leading scorer. The latter continued to assert himself by opening the scoring at 2:29 of the second half, achieving his 34th success of the season by accepting a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi before shooting from the slot. Nylander is one of 10 NHL players to have scored at least 10 goals since the All-Star break, when he reached 11.

But four minutes later Viktor Olofsson emerged from the shadows to equalize. Left out since February 15 by the Sabres, he quickly moved into the opposition box and fired a precise shot into the top corner to surprise Ilya Samsonov.

The Leafs finally get the upper hand over the Sabers after losing their first two duels of the season and the two teams will face each other one final time on March 30 in Buffalo.

The Sabers were without their leading scorer, Casey Mittelstadt, who they sent to the Colorado Avalanche this afternoon in favor of Bowen Byram. The 22-year-old defenseman will make his debut for the club tomorrow against the Nashville Predators.