Calgary deserves the two points in this one. The Flames on Saturday night rebounded from a 0-2 deficit just 2:40 into the game and dominated the second and third periods at the Pepsi Center. They claimed a 3-2 triumph on Johnny Gaudreau’s goal 46 seconds into overtime. Game story is here:
Three stars:
- Johnny Gaudreau. Flames star winger had the game-winning goal and eight shots.
- Elias Lindholm. Had the game-tying goal to force OT in the final minutes of regulation.
- Semyon Varlamov. Avs goalie was tremendous with 38 saves.
What you might have missed: Avs rookie forward Vladislav Kamenev played a team-low 7:51 but was 3-0 in faceoffs. Colorado was last in faceoff percentage last season and currently 28th at 45.4 percent.
Next up: At the New York Rangers, Tuesday
take quick 2-0 lead but lose 3-2 in OT to Flames. Coach Bednar:
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
Still special. The Avs didn’t score a power-play goal for the first time this season at home but their penalty kill was against perfect, going 4-for-4. They are now 22-for-23
(95.7 percent) on the kill this season, including 10-for-10 at home, and have killed off 16 consecutive opponent power plays.
Glorious opportunity. Calgary’s Sam Bennett took a double-minor for roughing the Avs’ Nikita Zadorov at 7:19 of the third period. Colorado was leading 2-1 at the time and was going on the power play. But the Avs didn’t even produce a shot with the man-advantage, a huge blown opportunity to get that insurance goal on a team that was playing relentless hockey.
Captain-speak. “The last two periods is when we stopped playing offensive hockey; we weren’t playing aggressive hockey, which is the way we can play. We want to play fast. We see what happens when we play fast — in the first five, 10 minutes of the first period obviously, we were doing pretty good and then we kind of just laid off the gas. All of a sudden we started making soft plays and it wasn’t good enough” — Gabe Landeskog
Captain-speak II. “Man, that team can skate. They came out of the gate really hot and really fast. I think they won their last one pretty big, so they were feeling it early, you could tell they were playing with a lot of confidence and speed. Obviously, thatap not the start we want, but I thought we responded really well, especially as the game went on. We realized we just had to put pucks behind them and forecheck them and thatap what we did” — Calgary captain Mark Giordano
In the ensuing days. Colorado will practice Sunday at noon and depart for New York on Monday. The Avs begin a four-game trip Tuesday at the Rangers. The trip includes stops at the New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers.
