DENVER – Jonathan Drouin scored his third goal of the season and the Colorado Avalanche raced to a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night at the Ball Arena in Denver.
The Avalanche thus signs a third consecutive victory, in addition to triumphing six times in its last seven outings. Colorado sits alone at the top of the Central Division with a record of 14-6-0, two points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets.
For their part, the Flames were unable to score a second win in a row, 24 hours after their superb comeback in a 7-4 victory against the Predators.
After a slow start to the season marked by a meager collection of one point in 10 games, Drouin is experiencing better times with five points in his last eight games. He has three points in his last three games.
Nathan MacKinnon also scored in the Avalanche’s victory, in addition to contributing to Drouin’s goal with an assist. Ryan Johansen scored the other Avalanche goal, while the Flames’ only goal was scored by Mikael Backlund.
Ivan Prosvetov had a good outing in the Avalanche’s net, stopping 29 of 30 shots directed at him to earn his second win of the season. At the other end of the ice, Dan Vladar allowed three goals on 24 shots.
Drouin took advantage of a nice play prepared by MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to open the scoring in the middle of the first period. MacKinnon first made a beautiful entry into the zone, before passing the puck to Rantanen. The Finn then left the puck behind him for Drouin, who scored with a good wrist shot after some nice maneuvers.
The Avalanche came back in the middle of the middle period through Johansen, with Drouin also on the ice. Johansen first blocked a weak clearance from Nikita Zadorov at the blue line before attacking the enemy territory. Johansen fooled Vladar by quickly skating around the net to score his seventh goal of the season.
Calgary showed signs of life minutes later thanks to a magnificent play by Jonathan Huberdeau. In possession of the puck in the slot, the Quebecer made a turnaround pass to Backlund, who completed into an empty net.
Much to the dismay of the Flames, the Avalanche only took 34 seconds to respond and regain a two-goal lead. In the zone entry, MacKinnon took advantage of plenty of time to unleash a wrist shot that eluded Vladar.
Prosvetov closed the door on all Flames attacks in the third period, as they fired 15 shots on goal.
The Avalanche will be back in action against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday, while the Flames will start a six-game homestand against the Vegas Golden Knights, also on Monday.
The Sharks surprise the Canucks
For only the second time this season, the San Jose Sharks scored at least four goals in a game, surprising the Vancouver Canucks in a 4-3 victory.
It’s only the fourth win in 21 games this season for the Sharks, all victories achieved at home.
Mikael Granlund notably stood out with a spectacular goal in the third period, which gave the Sharks the lead for good. Ty Emberson scored the first goal of his NHL career and Fabian Zetterlund also found the back of the net. The last goal for the Sharks was credited to Mike Hoffman, after defenseman Ian Cole pushed the puck into his own net.
For Hoffman, it’s a goal in his third straight game. He has now scored six goals in his last six games, after not scoring any in his first 14 games.
Defenseman Quinn Hughes once again contributed offensively for the Canucks with an assist, extending his streak of games with at least one point to 11.
Brock Boeser scored two goals, J.T. Miller collected three assists, and the other Canucks goal was scored by Filip Hronek.
The Canucks thought they had opened the scoring in the early minutes of the game when Sam Lafferty redirected a pass from Ilya Mikheyev into the net. San Jose, however, won a challenge and the goal was disallowed as Lafferty had obstructed goalkeeper Kaapo Kahkonen.
The Sharks took advantage of this situation to take the lead a few minutes later. Emberson unleashed a powerful slap shot from the blue line and put the Sharks ahead.
San Jose offered a power play to the Canucks late in the initial period and Vancouver made sure to make them pay. Hronek unleashed a powerful slap shot on a pass from J.T. Miller and allowed the Canucks to tie the game 1-1.
The two teams then exchanged goals at the end of the middle period to bring the score to 2-2. Zetterlund first put the Sharks ahead with a shot from the top of the slot, but Boeser brought everyone back to square one with 21 seconds left.
Against all odds, the Sharks quickly took a two-goal lead in the third period. Granlund first scored a spectacular goal from end to end, then San Jose took advantage of a monumental mistake by Cole, who scored in his own net to make it 4-2.
Boeser gave the Canucks hope by narrowing the gap to 4-3 late in the game, but the Canucks were unable to get the better of Kahkonen to tie the game.
Sharks goalkeeper finished the game with 31 saves, while Canucks goalkeeper Casey DeSmith allowed four goals on 22 shots.
Ingram gets a shutout against Vegas
Connor Ingram made 34 saves for his first shutout of the season and his second in his career as the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-0 on Saturday.
Clayton Keller scored the first goal of the game with 9:22 remaining in the third period.
Lawson Crouse added an empty-net goal. It was his 10th goal of the season – his 10th in the month of November – and his fifth in his last six games.
Ingram’s first shutout in the NHL came on February 15 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Logan Thompson made 16 saves for the Golden Knights, who were shut out for the third time in six games. They had been shut out only twice last season before winning the Stanley Cup.
The Coyotes put an end to a three-game losing streak.
It was the only game on the road during an eight-game sequence for the Arizona team. In contrast, the Golden Knights played their only game in front of their home fans in the middle of a series of nine consecutive games.
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