Colorado Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon continues 17-game ...

Nathan MacKinnon continued his torrid scoring pace with a five-point effort in a Colorado Avalanche 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators.

MacKinnon scored four goals, including career No. 300, and added an assist in Thursday night's NHL game.

The 28-year-old centre is on a 17-game point-scoring streak that has vaulted him into second in NHL scoring. MacKinnon has 18 goals and 35 assists for 53 points, just four behind leader Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

After the game, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said MacKinnon and linemates Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin are delivering at a much-needed time for the team.

“He's (MacKinnon) playing out of his mind right now, and we're asking that top line to do a lot right now. And they're following through.”

MacKinnon said he approaches each game the same way and casually brushed aside the four-goal effort.

“I'm just trying to play the best I can,” said MacKinnon in a game story on NHL.com. “I thought I've had some better games. I just got some goals tonight. They just went in. Hit one off the shin pad, had an empty netter. Sometimes it feels easy. Sometimes it feels really hard. Tonight, was easy.”

Lately, scoring has been very easy for the Cole Harbour native. MacKinnon has collected 33 points in his 17-game points streak and has only been held off the scoresheet twice in his last 25 games.

MacKinnon’s milestone 300th goal came late in the first period when he snapped a shot past Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo. He would add a pair of third-period goals to become the first Avalanche player to net four goals in a game.

After the Thursday night game, MacKinnon sits 174th in all-time NHL scoring with 812 points (302 goals and 510 assists) in only 742 games.

Drake Batherson of Port Williams had a goal and an assist for the Senators.