ST. PAUL, Minn. — Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon‘s second-period goal against Dallas on Thursday night was only his third of the season, putting him on a 15-goal pace for 2016-17.

Given that the speedy MacKinnon was the NHL’s top overall draft choice in 2013, won the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year in 2013-14, signed a seven-year $44.1 million contract extension last summer and drew plaudits as an up-and-coming star as recently as when he played for Team North America in the World Cup this fall, that won’t cut it.

He knows it.

“I’m glad I got one tonight,” he said after Colorado’s 3-2 loss at Dallas. “I feel like more should be going in. I have to do a better job of finishing them. The positive thing is I’m getting chances and have a ton of shots on net this season. I’ve been known to be streaky in my career, and I want to be more consistent, but I feel pretty good.”

MacKinnon brought up his rookie year, when he had three goals in his first 23 games and two in his last 24 games, yet finished with 24 goals. That meant that in the middle, he had 19 goals in 35 games.

“So that was streaky,” he said. “I’ve been like that my first few years, unfortunately. It’s good and bad. When you get hot, you get hot. I want to have a more consistent season and that starts with being prepared every night and hopefully, I can do it.”

On nights such as Tuesday against Los Angeles, when MacKinnon had 10 shots on goal, but didn’t score, his mouth-dropping speed and flashiness make him impossible to miss. It added to the impression that at times he can seem more Apolo Ohno on the ice than Wayne Gretzky.

That might seem unfair, bringing up the best in the history of the game, but those are the standards that can come with being the No. 1 overall pick at age 17. MacKinnon didn’t even turn 21 until Sept. 1, and he still has the best career stats among the four forwards taken in the top five in his draft year. Plus, while defenseman Seth Jones, claimed by Nashville at fourth overall and traded to Columbus in January, has drawn widespread praise, he also unsurprisingly has had growing pains at the position at which the transition to the NHL is tougher.

Yet expectations are high for MacKinnon.

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar took over from Patrick Roy, who coached against MacKinnon in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and whose voice was decisive in the selection of MacKinnon.

“He’s been kept off the scoresheet as far as goal-scoring goes, as of late,” Bednar said after the game in Dallas. “He has to go back to the basics, to the work ethic, to shooting pucks and getting to the high-traffic areas, the areas where you can score. He did that again (against Dallas). I didn’t love his first period, just like the rest of our team, but he came hard in the last two periods. He was around the net, he was hanging on to pucks and it wasn’t fancy plays. He was driving his legs and using his legs and doing the right things and sometimes that’s just throwing it on net.”

After playing wing much of the time in his first three seasons, MacKinnon seems locked in at center under Bednar, and that will be the case again when the Avalanche faces the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night on the second stop of the three-game road trip. Related Articles November 17, 2016 Avalanche rally late, but fall short in Dallas

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“I feel good there,” MacKinnon said. “I feel like my faceoffs have come a long way and I’m more consistent at winning those. It’s definitely getting the puck low and with speed, versus at wing you’re kind of stuck on the wall sometimes. I like it. I played it in junior and I’m glad I made the switch.”

Before Bednar did some shuffling in the wake of the Avalanche falling behind 3-0 after one period at Dallas, MacKinnon was centering Andreas Martinsen and the just-recalled A.J. Greer on the top line. That was out of necessity, with both Matt Duchene (concussion) and Gabe Landeskog (lower body injury) out. They also were high lottery picks, with Duchene going No. 3 overall in 2009 and Landeskog at No. 2 in 2011.

“It stinks, but we can’t fill the void of two of our best players, two of the leaders on our team,” MacKinnon said. “It’s unfortunate that we lost those two guys, but at the same time, we had guys step up (at Dallas).” He went on to note that Mikhail Grigorenko had the other goal, the Russian forward’s first of the season, and that Greer had an assist for his first NHL point.

“We have to play all the time like we did for the last 40 minutes,” MacKinnon said. “We hounded pucks, we were good defensively and only gave up 22 shots, almost doubling them. We just have to keep shooting pucks on net, retrieving them and playing desperate. We don’t have the most skilled team in the world, especially with those two guys out, so we need to play simple. We’re still a fast team, so we have to use our strengths.”

2013 NHL Draft: The Top Five

……………………………………………………………….. GP G A Pts

1 — Nathan MacKinnon, C, Avalanche 234 62 101 163 .

2 — Aleksander Barkov, C, Florida 208 54 73 127

3 — Jonathan Drouin, LW, Tampa Bay 102 10 38 48

4 — Seth Jones, D, Nashville* 250 20 69 89

5 — Elias Lindholm, C, Carolina 236 37 65 102

*Since traded to Columbus

NOTE: Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov, 21, also went in the first round in 2013, at No. 16 overall to the Buffalo Sabres.

COLORADO AT MINNESOTA, Saturday, 6 p.m., ALT, 950 AM

Spotlight on: Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk

Dubnyk has allowed nine goals in his last nine games, and his 1.48 goals-against and save percentage of .952 lead the league. He had his league-high fourth shutout in a 1-0 win over Boston on Thursday, making 25 saves.

Avalanche: Colorado didn’t practice Friday in the Twin Cities, taking one of the four days off per month mandatory under the collective bargaining agreement. … There was no additional news about the status of Matt Duchene, who has missed three games after suffering a concussion Nov. 11, or Gabe Landeskog, who didn’t make the trip to Dallas for the opening game of the trip as he took treatment in Denver for a lower body injury suffered Tuesday against Los Angeles. … Duchene is expected to at least again go through the morning skate at the Xcel Energy Center.

Wild: In the Minnesota win over the Bruins, Mikael Granlund had the only goal of the game with 44.5 seconds left, when his centering pass went off Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid and off goalie Tuukka Rask, then in. … The flip side to the Wild’s stinginess is that Minnesota has scored only 10 goals in its last seven games. … The Wild Thursday sent rookie center Joel Eriksson Elk, 19, back to Farjesta BK in the Swedish Elite League. He had two goals and three assists in nine games, and the move is designed to avoid having his three-year entry-level contract kick in, which would have happened if he had played a 10th game this season. He was the 20th overall choice of the 2015 draft, the same year Colorado claimed Mikko Rantanen (10th) and A.J. Greer (39th), both currently with the team.