The Presidents’ Trophy winners for this season, the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche, visited the Calgary Flames on Tuesday evening in the Flames’ second-last game of the 2025-26 season. The Avalanche showed off their ample skill, but the Flames had their work boots on and managed to keep the game close.

The Avalanche pulled away in the third period, beating the Flames by a 3-1 score.

Neither team scored in the opening period, but the Flames had a couple of great looks: Zayne Parekh hit the crossbar once, while Matvei Gridin got a breakaway but couldn’t get a good shot off.

First period shots were 10-6 Avalanche.

Tyson Gross had a shorthanded breakaway in the second period, but he was stopped by Mackenzie Blackwood.

Midway through the second frame, the Flames opened the scoring. Mikael Backlund won an offensive zone face-off, curled towards the point and fired the puck towards the net. Blake Coleman made a great redirect while falling to put the puck past Blackwood to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

Awhile later, though, the Avalanche tied things up. Cale Makar jumped into the rush, got possession of the puck in the corner of the Flames’ zone, then fired a pass to Artturi Lehkonen at the far side of net. Lehkonen snapped the puck past Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.

Second period shots were 17-10 Avalanche.

The third period was pretty back and forth. But late in the frame, the Avalanche got the lead. They got the puck to the point and a Brett Kulak point shot was redirected by Gabriel Landeskog past Wolf to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.

The Flames pulled Wolf for the extra attacker. They couldn’t score, and Nathan MacKinnon added an empty-netter to ice this one as a 3-1 Avalanche victory.

Third period shots were 14-12 Flames.

It’s probably not disrespectful to say that the Flames are at a skill deficit against the Avalanche, who are the best team in the NHL and very good. Give the Flames credit: they worked their butts off and gave the Avalanche a tough evening. But the Avalanche, even playing at three-quarters speed for much of this outing, are just in a different class right now.

The Flames kept it close, but the better team won.

We’re gonna play the hits: Dustin Wolf was the Flames’ best player. He was excellent.

In what was effectively a one-goal game, the Avalanche’s go-ahead goal is the obvious choice here.

Dustin Wolf started in net. Matvei Gridin returned from his illness and Rory Kerins was inserted after being called up early on Tuesday; they replaced a banged-up Matt Coronato and a healthy Ryan Strome in the lineup.

Zach Whitecloud took a high stick to the face late in the second period and didn’t play in the third period.

Former Flames forward Nazem Kadri wasn’t in the lineup for Colorado as he recovers from a hand injury and a few other nagging things, but he received a nice ovation from the fans – and waved to the crowd from the Zamboni entrance – during a tribute during the first period TV timeout.

Join Cami Kepke and Mike Gould right after the game for After Burner!

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The Flames (33-39-9) close out their 2025-26 season on Thursday evening when they host the Los Angeles Kings in Anze Kopitar’s final NHL game.