Avalanche super­star Nathan MacK­in­non has a team-high 10 penal­ty min­utes and his coach­es and team­mates ful­ly sup­port his chippiness.

MacK­in­non, who took just 12 penal­ty min­utes in 69 reg­u­lar-sea­son games and is a final­ist for the Lady Byng Tro­phy for sports­man­ship and gen­tle­man­ly con­duct, took a rough­ing minor late in the third peri­od of Monday’s 7–1 vic­to­ry over the Ari­zona Coy­otes in Game 4.

MacK­in­non entered a scrum caused by a dan­ger­ous hit by Arizona’s Law­son Crouse on team­mate Cale Makar. MacK­in­non squared off with the Coy­otes’ Chris­t­ian Fischer.

MacK­in­non, who had two assists in the game, threw Fis­ch­er around like a rag doll but did not throw a punch.

“I think Fis­ch­er cross-checked the wrong guy in the face. You saw what Nate did to him. He absolute­ly man­han­dled him,” said Avs fourth-line winger Matt Calvert, the team’s tough­est play­er. “Prob­a­bly could have thrown 10 punch­es and knocked him out. I’m glad he didn’t throw the punch­es … They try to get to him and he’s just big­ger than them.”

Avs coach Jared Bed­nar said MacKinnon’s actions towards Fis­ch­er showed his “char­ac­ter and leadership.”

“I love his fire, his pas­sion, he’s played with the whole series. He’s phys­i­cal at the point of the puck, away from the puck, check­ing hard,” Bed­nar said of MacK­in­non. “Didn’t love the hit (on Makar). Our guys took offense to it and you see all our guys get­ting involved right away and Nate and Fis­ch­er are paired up. Just two guys play­ing with inten­si­ty and passion.”

He added: “I love see­ing our guys stick up for one anoth­er at the right times.”

Makar goal. Makar did his best Bob­by Orr imper­son­ation ear­ly in the third peri­od for his sec­ond goal of the play­offs, which gave Col­orado a 5–1 lead Mon­day. The goal came 19 sec­onds into the peri­od after Ari­zona goalie Antti Raan­ta replaced Dar­cy Kuemper.

“That was an amaz­ing goal and I think what’s even more amaz­ing is how easy he made it look,” Avs for­ward Matt Nieto said of Makar’s unas­sist­ed goal. “It doesn’t take him many strides to get to that stop speed and when he’s com­ing at you like that it’s a scary thing. We want­ed to come out in the third hard and fast. They start­ed a new goalie. It’s not easy fac­ing a break­away on your first shot against. Like I said, just an amaz­ing goal.”

Makar’s goal was the sec­ond-fastest tal­ly to begin a peri­od in Avalanche play­off his­to­ry. Peter Fors­berg scored at 17 sec­onds to begin the third peri­od on April 22, 1998, vs. Edmonton.

Foot­notes. The Avs again played with­out for­ward Vladislav Namest­nikov, who was “unfit to play” for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive game. Namest­nikov suf­fered what is believed to be an upper-body injury when he col­lid­ed with MacK­in­non ear­ly in Game 2. … Colorado’s sev­en goals were its most in a post­sea­son game since May 4, 2002, when it had eight against San Jose. … The Avs’ three pow­er-play goals were the most in a post­sea­son game since they had three against Dal­las on April 9, 2004.