Post-Game: Two out of three ain’t bad

The Calgary Flames completed their Central Division road trip in Denver on Saturday night. After allowing two goals in the opening 2:40 of the game, they roared back and beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in overtime.

Things looked bad early, as the Avalanche scored twice on consecutive TJ Brodie shifts. 11 seconds in, Sean Monahan couldn’t complete a clearing pass. Mikko Rantanen stole it, shot it at David Rittich, and Nathan MacKinnon beat Brodie to the loose rebound to make it 1-0. A couple minutes later Brodie whiffed on a bouncing clearing pass, allowing JT Compher to go top shelf with the puck to go up 2-0.

The Flames recovered and pressed, but couldn’t bury anything. Shots were 17-10 Avalanche and chances were 12-7 Avalanche.

The Flames kept pressing in the second and Sam Bennett got rewarded for going to the net – like you’re supposed to, kids – and buried the rebound off an initial Mikael Backlund shot to reduce the deficit to 2-1.

Shots were 16-7 Flames, chances 9-4 Flames.

The third was even more tilted towards the Flames, as the Avalanche went into a defensive shell and tried to run out the clock. But Elias Lindholm jumped onto the ice as Bill Peters pulled Rittich for the extra attacker. Lindholm waltzed into the Avalanche zone, stole the puck from Matt Nieto and beat Semyon Varlamov with a low wrister to make it 2-2.

Shots 12-3 Flames, chances 9-0 Flames.

In extra time Monahan made up for his whiff in the first 11 seconds of the game, springing Johnny Gaudreau for a breakaway. Gaudreau beat Varlamov five-hole to finish the comeback. 3-2 Flames was the final score.

Shots were 2-0 Flames in overtime.

They were a bit iffy in their own zone, again, but they didn’t wilt under pressure when they got down by a pair. They kept playing their game, wildly out-chanced the Avalanche, and eventually were rewarded for their efforts.

Rittich made his first start and was full marks after a shaky first 2:40. He stopped the final 22 shots he faced and was really good early in this game when Colorado was trying to make it 3-0.

Stick-taps to Bennett, Gaudreau and Lindholm for their strong games.

Lindholm’s game-tying goal tied this thing up and seemed to deflate the Avalanche. They were shaky before then, and then they collapsed.

Peters busted out the line blender after the first 20 minutes. The trios for the remainder of the game were: Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk, Bennett-Backlund-Neal, Dube-Lindholm-Czarnik and Ryan-Jankowski-Hathaway. The defensive pairings weren’t tweaked.

Rittich seemed to know Gaudreau was going to score on the OT breakaway:

The Flames (3-2-0) head home tonight after taking two of the three games on their road trip. They’re off tomorrow, then head back to the practice ice on Monday. They host the Boston Bruins at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night.