MacKinnon added an empty-net goal at 19:36 for the 5-3 final.
The forward has 12 points (six goals, six assists) on a six-game point streak; he leads the NHL with 28 goals and 58 points.
“I mean, he’s just a dominant player,” Manson said of MacKinnon. “He creates chances all the time on the ice but makes the guys around him better. And I feel like he’s got that kind of shot mentality this year, like just throwing everything to the net, and it’s working for him.”
Lehkonen made it 1-0 at 12:19 of the first period after Necas walked across the blue line to the middle, then snapped a shot that glanced off Lehkonen’s leg and over Grubauer’s glove.
“We were close in the first period, but it just seemed like they had an added step on us,” Bednar said. “And I think part of that was just the intensity that they were playing with early, and I didn’t mind us, but we gave up too much, and we weren’t getting enough. … And as the game went on, I thought we got there, and then, good things started to happen for us.”
Wright tied it 1-1 at 3:03 of the second period. His snap shot from the left circle hit Jani Nyman at the top of the crease. Nyman chipped it off the left post, and Wright crashed and swatted the loose puck off the post and in.
“I thought they played well,” Lambert said of Wright’s line with Nyman and Kaapo Kakko.
