CALGARY, Alberta — Avalanche players were so happy to win Monday night’s game against the Calgary Flames, they didn’t seem to know how to express it afterward.
So, as goalie Craig Anderson trundled into the room after doing a brief TV interview, most of his teammates broke out into spontaneous yelps that sounded like a cross between a coyote howl and somebody putting a hand on a hot burner.
“These guys are just being goofy right now,” Anderson said amid the cacophony. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
What went on was a Mona Lisa performance by Anderson in the Avs’ net, good enough to give Colorado a 3-2 shootout victory over the Flames and a share of first place in the Northwest Division with Calgary.
Stopping 44-of-46 shots, including 2-of-3 in the shootout, Anderson was the no-brainer first star of Colorado’s fourth 3-2 win over the Flames this season.
“This is a tough building to play in, with a great fan base, and we just are happy to pull out a win,” Anderson said. “For us to battle through it has been terrific for us.”
Chris Stewart’s shootout goal was the difference, a little backhander between the pads of Miikka Kiprusoff. The Avs survived a third period in which they were outshot 17-4, and then 5-1 in OT.
The Flames tried to come out and physically intimidate the Avs, but the visitors stood up to the aggression, with three fights in the game’s first four minutes.
“We knew that Calgary is a physical team, with a lot on the line tonight, and I’m real happy with how our guys responded. We were in the game physically and maintained our intensity,” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “Craig really came up big for us tonight. He’s been doing that all year. Your best penalty killer is your goalie, and he was tonight.”
In the game’s first 40 minutes, the Avs were the best team in the first and last 10 minutes, and the Flames were better in the middle.
Calgary took a 1-0 lead at 15:24 of the first on a Rene Bourque goal, after the Avs’ Scott Hannan and Ryan Wilson got their signals crossed.
Like the Avs, the Flames have shown a tendency to relax after taking a lead, and that appeared the case after Calgary extended the lead to 2-0.
Colorado finally got on the board at 13:16 of the second, when Paul Stastny scored his first goal since Dec. 22, on the power play. A few shifts later, Avs first-line right winger Chris Stewart evened it up with a long wrist shot that snuck through an opening by the right pad of Kiprusoff.
The Flames came out and put a lot of shots on Craig Anderson in the third period. The shots, with 9:07 left, were 38-17 in favor of Calgary.
Colorado had a chance to get a win in regulation, going on the power play with 5:17 left, but didn’t do much.
The Avs had to fight just to get the game into overtime, after Brandon Yip was called for holding the stick with 58.4 seconds left.
It got really hairy for the Avs in OT, when Stastny (goal and an assist) accidentally batted a puck into the stands as the Avs were still trying to kill off Yip’s penalty. That gave the star-studded Flames power play a 5-on-3, but Anderson was up to the task.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Craig Anderson.
Would have been a zero-point night for Avs without their goalie.
2. Rene Bourque.
Flames winger scored a first-period goal.
3. Chris Stewart.
Avs forward had a goal and scored the winner in the shootout.
What you might have missed
The Avs got at least a point in all three meetings at Calgary this season.
Up next
New Jersey, Saturday at 1 p.m., the Pepsi Center.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
