Rasmus Andersson had a goal and an assist, and the Calgary Flames built a four-goal third-period lead before holding on for a 5-3 win over the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
One night after raising the 2021-22 Stanley Cup banner before a home win, the Avalanche were rudely greeted by the Flames, who scored five straight goals on the way to winning their season opener.
It was career win No. 700 for Flames coach Darryl Sutter.
Brett Ritchie, Dillon Dube, Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm also scored for Calgary. Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves.
Valeri Nichushkin scored his third goal in two games for Colorado. Nathan MacKinnon tallied a goal and an assist, Bowen Byram also scored and Pavel Francouz made 22 saves.
The Avalanche took an early 1-0 lead when Byram entered the zone on the rush, had the puck knocked away but managed to poke it past Markstrom at 1:39 of the first period.
Calgary’s fourth line evened the score when Ritchie scored from the slot at 11:23 off a pass from Milan Lucic.
Dube put the Flames in front when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush with Andrew Mangiapane and beat Francouz with a wrist shot for a short-handed goal at 2:31 of the second period.
Andersson made it 3-1 on a breakaway at 14:52 when he came out of the penalty box, took a pass from MacKenzie Weegar and slid the puck through the five-hole.
The Flames pulled away early in the third. With Erik Johnson in the penalty box, Nazem Kadri’s shot from the right circle deflected to Toffoli in the slot. Toffoli scored at 1:12 as he was hit by Cole Makar with a high stick.
With Makar in the box, Jonathan Huberdeau set up Lindholm in the slot and he scored to make it 5-1 at 2:47.
MacKinnon’s breakaway goal at 3:08 pulled the Avalanche within 5-2.
Colorado cut it to 5-3 with a power-play goal at 11:01 when Nichushkin worked a give-and-go with Mikko Rantanen and scored in front off the return feed.
–Field Level Media
