BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon was in such a zone on Monday, the Colorado Avalanche’s top-line center blanked on his second goal celebration.

“Stick twirl? I don’t think I did that, did I?” MacKinnon said, after his two-goal outing helped seal a 3-1 victory over the winless Buffalo Sabres. “I’ll have to rewatch it.”

Upon review, MacKinnon smiled when showed a replay of the stick twirl and punctuating his celebration with a fist pump after his snap shot from the high slot beat Alex Lyon on the short side to cap the scoring with 8:01 left in the second period.

“I guess I did,” he said. “Definitely excited about the goal. Don’t usually score from that far out, so just happy about it.”

He is no stranger to scoring. He’s scored at least 20 goals 10 times over his first 12 seasons, including a career-best 51 in 2023-24, his lone NHL MVP season.

McKinnon is already on a roll in his 13th season with the Avalanche, who are off to a 3-0-1 start. He has four goals, including the winner in a 2-1 victory over Utah, and four assists.

Though defenseman Cale Makar’s second-period goal counted as the game-winner, MacKinnon’s contributions proved valuable for a Colorado team still adjusting to the Eastern time zone, facing a 12:30 p.m. puck drop and following a grueling 5-4 shootout loss to Dallas in Denver on Saturday night.

With Colorado being outshot 5-1 in the opening minutes, MacKinnon opened the scoring by taking Martin Necas’ pass at the right boards and cutting across the middle before backhanding a shot into the open left side 3:14 into the game.

“He knows the circumstances we’re in, and creating offense the first part of the game was a little bit of a struggle,” coach Jared Bednar said.

“It’s the type of performance you kind of need sometimes,” he added. “And (MacKinnon) certainly was our best offensive player.”

Bednar said MacKinnon’s best play actually came on a goal that eventually didn’t count. MacKinnon powered his way up the left boards and out-muscled several defenders in setting up Necas’ goal that was disallowed after the Sabres successfully challenged the Avalanche for being offside.

“It was obviously offside, and it was the right call,” Bednar said. “But he had a really strong night. Relentless and tenacious the whole night.”

MacKinnon was disappointed he didn’t score more in assessing how quickly he’s gelled on a line with Necas, who was acquired in a trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina in January, and Artturi Lehkonen.

“(Necas) creates so much time and space for me on his delays ... And Lekhy makes it all possible with his routes and his net presence,” MacKinnon said. “You know, Marty set me up for 10 chances tonight and only got two.”

Broncos' defense saves the day by sacking Justin Fields nine times in gritty win over Jets

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Denver's defense helped the Broncos deliver the Philadelphia Eagles their first loss of the season and prevented them from handing the New York Jets their first win.

The jubilation that followed Denver's comeback against the defending champions last week made for an enjoyable flight across the Atlantic to face the winless New York Jets in London, where they eked out a 13-11 win Sunday thanks to a defense that sacked mobile QB Justin Fields nine times.

Coming back to Colorado at 4-2 with a share of the AFC West lead made for an enjoyable return flight, too.

“It doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing,” coach Sean Payton said.

One has to go back to Oct. 19, 1969, to find a time the Broncos had more sacks. They had 10 that day against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Broncos limited the Jets to 2 of 15 on third downs, their league-leading fourth game this season in which they allowed two or fewer third-down conversions.

“That's pretty funny,” said league sacks leader Nik Bonitto, who was in on two takedowns of Fields.

The Broncos needed that kind of performance from their best unit because the offense sputtered once again, with Bo Nix throwing for 174 yards and J.K. Dobbins leading a scuffling ground game with 40 yards on 14 carries.

Asked about a defense having his back — one that collected nine sacks and surrendered just nine completions — Nix said: “It’s almost, you know, impossible what they did. It was impressive. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things where I don’t get to watch a whole lot of it. I wish I could. They’d be a fun defense to watch, probably an awful defense to play against. I know that kind of from practice. But they turned it on.”

Payton called it “a gritty performance by our defense,” and he was quick to add, “We’ll look at the film and there will be a number of things in the kicking game and offensively we want to clean up.”

In their victories over Philadelphia and New York on their extended road trip, the Broncos punted a whopping 14 times in 23 drives excluding kneel-downs. They had a seven-series stretch Sunday that produced six punts and a safety.

Winning ugly is still winning, though.

What’s working

Denver's defense hasn't allowed a touchdown in three of the Broncos' six games. OLB Jonathon Cooper's two sacks gave him 28 for his career. That's the most by any seventh-round draft choice in their first 70 NFL games since the league switched to a seven-round draft format in 1994.

What needs help

The offense is stuck in neutral way too often and special teams keeps allowing big play after big play like the 72-yard kickoff return in the first half.

Stock up

TE Evan Engram. After a slow start, Engram is working his way into Nix's comfort zone. He has been targeted 19 times over the last three games with 13 receptions. Of his team-best five receptions Sunday, four resulted in a first down.

Stock down

LG Matt Peart was whistled for three infractions in his first start in place of Ben Powers, who will miss a couple of months with a torn chest muscle. After a false start, Peart's holding call negated a 13-yard catch by Courtland Sutton, and another flag wiped out a 24-yard catch-and-run by Troy Franklin to the New York 19 on third-and-5, resulting in a punt.

“We’ll go back and look at the tape, but it wasn’t — listen, it wasn’t just him,” Payton said. “We had a number of errors that there will be a lot of us that want to clean some stuff up.”

Injuries

LB Garret Wallow was ruled out early in the fourth quarter with an unspecified injury.

Key stats

Justin Fields completed 9 of 17 passes for 45 yards. He lost 55 yards on the nine sacks, for a minus-10 net passing yards. That's the fewest yards the Broncos have allowed in their franchise history and second fewest in the NFL since 1990.

Wil Lutz's 57-yard field goal in the first quarter was his longest since joining the Broncos in 2023. Lutz has the two longest field goals in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium history, also making a 60-yard field goal in 2022 with the Saints.

Next steps

The Broncos face the well-rested New York Giants (2-4), who defeated the Eagles on Thursday night before getting the weekend off while the Broncos were overseas.