DENVER (AP) 鈥 Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist and Ivan Prosvetov stopped 30 shots as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 Saturday night for their sixth win in seven games.
Ryan Johansen added a goal and Jonathan Drouin had a first-period power-play score for Colorado, the seventh straight game in which the Avalanche scored on the power play.
Mikael Backlund scored for Calgary, which wrapped up a four-game road trip at 2-2. The Flames outshot the Avalanche 16-6 in the third period but Prosvetov turned away one scoring chance after another to help preserve the win. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a ton of work but at times during the game there were some flurries and I thought he was outstanding,鈥 Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. 鈥淗e looked really quick and strong and covers a lot of net. He's a big guy." Both teams were stretched physically coming into the game, completing the back end of a back-to-back set.
鈥淚 think we had a few guys lacking a little bit of energy tonight as I鈥檓 sure they did,鈥 said Bednar. 鈥淭hey played last night, too. So, if you鈥檙e ever going to get a back to back, it鈥檚 nice that both teams are not playing on full tanks.
"But I thought our overall team effort was pretty good. The penalty kill was great. Again, we got a good goaltending performance. We scored some timely goals. They came at us in the third. But we had a couple of shifts and a couple of flurries ourselves so we could build that lead up.鈥
Calgary shook off a bit of a slow start, attacking the Colorado zone through the final two periods. 鈥淭hey're a good team and they're not giving you much,鈥 said Calgary's Rasmus Andersson. 鈥淏ut we kept pushing and pushing, and today that wasn't enough.鈥 Colorado extended its lead to 2-0 when Johansen chased down a loose puck deep in Calgary鈥檚 zone, carrying it with speed behind the net ahead of Flames defenders and knocking in a wraparound shot at 10:10 of the second. 鈥淚 was running out of options quick,鈥 Johansen said. 鈥淚 felt like it was an impossible angle to score from on my backhand. So I thought the next best thing would be a wraparound and it worked out.鈥
The Flames broke through for a goal on Backlund鈥檚 wrist shot from up close off a feed from Jonathan Huberdeau at 12:03 of the second.
Colorado answered 34 seconds later as MacKinnon pulled up just inside the blue line and wristed a shot past goalie Dan Vladar, who had 21 saves. Cale Makar picked up the puck in Calgary鈥檚 zone and got it out to Valeri Nichushkin, who shoveled a lead pass to MacKinnon to set up the long-distance score.
The Avalanche opened the scoring at 6:31 of the first with Drouin's goal. He got a centering pass from Mikko Rantanen and beat Vladar with a wrist shot from between the circles.
UP NEXT
Flames: Return home to host the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night.
Avalanche: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
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