Flames end season-opening drought with win over Avalanche – TSN.ca

CALGARY — The Calgary Flames won their season opener Thursday for the first time in well over a decade with a 5-3 win over defending Stanley Cup champions Colorado Avalanche.

The Flames ended the NHL’s longest active winning streak in opening games — 0-10-2 after their last win in 2009 — by scoring twice in the second and third halves.

“I saw a random stat that it’s been a while since the Flames won a season opener, so I’m glad we can get over that and we can just do another 81 games here,” the new Flames said -Defender MacKenzie Weegar.

Dillon Dube scored from a man down and defender Rasmus Andersson scored a breakaway in the middle that came from inside the box. Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli contributed power play goals in the third, and Brett Ritchie also scored for Calgary.

Weegar joined Calgary’s other offseason acquisitions Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Kevin Rooney in their regular-season debuts for the Flames.

Weegar had two assists. Kadri set up Calgary’s fourth goal and Huberdeau’s fifth.

Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom, last season’s Vézina Trophy finalist, made 22 saves for the win, which was also the 700th of head coach Darryl Sutter’s career.

Defensemen Bowen Byram, Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado. Pavel Francouz stopped 22 shots in the loss.

The Avalanche had arrived overnight to play their second game in as many days. They raised the Stanley Cup banner and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

“The energy levels were definitely not where they should be,” said Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. “It wasn’t where it was last night. Give Calgary credit. I thought they did what they had to do to make it difficult for us.”

Kadri signed as a free agent with Calgary in August after three seasons with Colorado. Just weeks after lifting the trophy with the Avalanche, the London, Ontario center met his former teammates.

Kadri received his championship ring from the Avalanche after the game.

“To win and get that is the icing on the cake, that’s for sure,” said Kadri. “It’s been quite a whirlwind of a day. You’re just trying to compose yourself as best you can. A lot of things go through your mind.

“Luckily we were able to play a halfway decent game and win against a great team and that only makes it better.”

Lindholm and Toffoli made power-play goals at 2:47 and 1:12 respectively in the third, but MacKinnon’s famed speed countered on a breakaway at 3:08.

Nichushkin further reduced the deficit by 11:01 with a power play goal after a give-and-go with Mikko Rantanen.

“Third period, they turned it up,” Sutter said. “They’re champions for a reason. It’s important not to take bad penalties and we took two or three and one ended up costing you.”

As Toffoli deflected Kadri’s pass down the middle, he took a stick to Cale Makar’s face for another Flames power play chance, which Lindholm converted on Huberdeau’s feed.

Calgary was leading 3-1 at 14:52 of the second period when Andersson stepped out of the box to concede a stretch pass from Weegar. Andersson and team-mate Mikael Backlund, who sat with him in the box, had talked about scoring in that very game.

“We talked about going out and getting a breakaway,” Andersson said. “He told me if I didn’t score he would give it to me because we talked about it for two minutes.”

Dube scored, down 3:31, when he decided to fire into the far corner in a two-on-one with Andrew Mangiapane.

Ritchie pulled out the hosts at 11:23 of the first third. Milan Lucic from behind the goal line fed Ritchie into the slot to scoop the puck up next to Francouz’s glove.

Andersson missed a poke check on Byram in the slot and the latter flicked the puck on Colorado’s first shot of the game at 1:39 under Markstrom.

HELLO HUBERDEAU: Huberdeau’s contingent of friends and family at the Saddledome numbered over 30, including 22-year-old sister Josiane, who sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” followed by George Canyon’s “O Canada.”

BIG BROTHERS NIGHT: The Ritchie brothers scored three NHL goals together on Thursday. Brett’s brother Nick scored twice for the Arizona Coyotes in the 6-2 loss to Pittsburgh.

NOTES: The Avalanche was missing captain Gabriel Landeskog with a lower body injury sustained last season. He underwent knee surgery in March but returned for the playoffs… Backlund appeared in his 827th career game as the Flame, moving past Robyn Regehr to third place in franchise history behind Jarome Iginla (1,219) and Mark Giordano ( 949).

UP NEXT: The Flames travel to Edmonton on Saturday to take on the Oilers. Colorado stays on track to face the Minnesota Wild on Monday.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 13, 2022.