Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Johansen also scored, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 in Denver on Saturday night.
Ivan Prosvetov turned away 29 shots for Colorado, which has won six of its last seven games.
Mikael Backlund had a goal and Dan Vladar made 21 saves for Calgary.
The Avalanche got a scare in the first period when Cale Makar limped to the bench after blocking a shot, but he returned to the game and logged 22 minutes, 33 seconds of ice time.
Drouin gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when he beat Vladar with a wrister from just inside the right circle at 6:31 of the first period. It was his third of the season.
It stayed that way until midway through the second period. Johansen poked the puck away from Nikita Zadorov at the Avalanche blue line and carried it into the Flames’ zone ahead of the defense. Johansen skated behind the net and put in a wraparound shot inside the right post at 10:10 just before Vladar got his left skate over to stop it.
It was Johansen’s seventh of the season.
Calgary cut the deficit in half later in the second period. Blake Coleman sent a cross-zone pass to Jonathan Huberdeau on the left side of the net. Huberdeau sent it to Backlund in the slot, and he beat Prosvetov at 12:03 for his fourth goal of the season.
Colorado responded 34 seconds later when MacKinnon skated just over the Flames’ blue line and wristed a shot through traffic and over Vladar’s left shoulder. It was his seventh of the season and his ninth straight home game with at least one point.
Calgary pushed for another goal, holding the Avalanche without a shot for more than half of the third period. Vladar came off for an extra skater with 2:28 remaining, and the Flames had several chances to cut into the lead, but Prosvetov came up big.
–Field Level Media
