5-2 victory for the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was the last goal of a dominant second period for the Avs.<\/p>\n\u201cHe is such a nice person,\u201d Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. \u201cWorks so hard. Just a good guy. It\u2019s crazy how nice he is, to be honest. I wish I was that nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t officially a power-play goal, but it came just four seconds after Pittsburgh\u2019s Ben Kindel left the penalty box and before he could rejoin the play. MacKinnon faked a like he was going to one-touch the puck as he received a pass from Cale Makar at the left flank.<\/p>\n
Penguins\u2019 penalty killer Bryan Rust stuck his stick out to try and prevent a potential pass to Nazem Kadri in the bumper spot. MacKinnon capitalized on Rust\u2019s reaction and drove toward the net.<\/p>\n
Hughes had slid over to potentially provide a screen for a MacKinnon shot, but when he saw the 2024 MVP make his move, the rookie from Michigan slyly backed away just far enough to put himself in perfect position for a tap-in. MacKinnon saw him move and backhanded the puck into a perfect spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt really good,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cIt was a big goal at a big time of the game. Nate gave me a great pass. I think the power play had just expired, but I thought the power play was good. We were moving it around. Nate just made a great play, and I was able to score.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added MacKinnon said: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of against the grain. Got down on one knee. He looks comfortable on the goal line. I think he\u2019s more comfortable there than in the middle. He\u2019s a pass-first guy, so I think he\u2019s in a good spot down there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes earned the customary water-bottle shower from Avs captain Gabe Landeskog as he celebrated going by the Avs bench. Jaden Schwartz made sure to grab the puck for Hughes to keep.<\/p>\n
It was the first goal in Hughes\u2019 eighth NHL game, but he\u2019s been close a few times before. He\u2019s got two points in eight games, but Hughes has also been part of a productive line with Schwartz and Fedor Svechkov.<\/p>\n
The three newcomers have all been put together on Colorado\u2019s third line, and the results have been solid. Colorado has outscored its opponents 4-2 when those three are on the ice together. The Avs are nearly doubling up foes in shots on goal (28-15) and the trio has generated 60% of the scoring chances (30-20) in nearly 50 minutes of ice time together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just communication,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWe talk a lot on the bench. We talk a lot in practice. Those guys are great players. (Schwartz has) the experience, the IQ, the compete, and (Svechkov) with the work, his skill \u2014 I just feel like we complement each other pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Hughes\u2019 goal didn\u2019t count as an extra-man tally, the Avs got one in the third period. MacKinnon did not fake a one-timer this time, blasting one on a feed from Makar past Pittsburgh goaltender Arturs Silvos for his sixth goal of the year and fourth point of the night.<\/p>\n
Officially, Colorado\u2019s power play numbers in assistant coach Brett McLean\u2019s first game were solid: seven shots on goal and five scoring chances in 7:01 of 5-on-4 time. Toss in the Hughes goal as a spiritual PPG, and it was a strong start with a new coach and a couple of personnel tweaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the power play executed,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t force things. They were patient. They made some nice plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was good buy-in from the guys. A lot of credit goes to the guys, but Brett gave them a couple things to think about without getting too in-depth, and I think that was a great approach for today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes is a proud Michigan alum, and maybe it was fate that he scored his first NHL goal with his former teammates playing a handful of miles south of here at Magness Arena. The No. 2-ranked Wolverines defeated the No. 1-ranked University of Denver Pioneers, 4-1, on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Both Hughes and Gavin Brindley met up with the Wolverines on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw them yesterday at the hotel,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cYeah, I haven\u2019t seen those boys in a while, so it was great to see them. Yeah, it was a little fitting for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nice guys don\u2019t always finish last. T.J. Hughes scored the first goal of his NHL career Friday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[193,1466,1116,144,4345,1035,18209,5,1117,1180,1262,517,2054,4,43,1536],"class_list":["post-689142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-avalanche","tag-ball-arena","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-denver-pioneers","tag-gabe-landeskog","tag-gavin-brindley","tag-hockey","tag-jared-bednar","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-university-of-denver"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117457181989362484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}