The Calgary Flames came home hoping for a respite from their losing skid. They didn’t get one, as they lost 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche to stretch their winless streak to five games and slip below the .500 mark.

The Rundown

The Flames had some jump early, but so did the Avalanche. Three minutes into the game, the visitors struck. Nathan MacKinnon entered the Flames zone, drawing the defenders to him. Andre Burakovsky snuck into the zone as the trailer and opened himself up for a pass with a burst of speed. One nice MacKinnon pass later, Burakovsky shelved a wrist shot over David Rittich to give Colorado a 1-0 advantage.
Late in the period Colorado doubled their edge. MacKinnon won a face-off and the Avs made a couple quick passes around the face-off circle. From a low angle, straddling the bottom of the face-off circle, Burakovsky wristed the puck between Rittich’s shoulder and the near post to make it 2-0 Avalanche.
Shots were 13-7 Flames and chances 11-9 Flames in the opening period.
The Flames had some zone time in the second period but couldn’t get into the high-rent district to generate some good scoring chances. Going the other way, some nice passing by the Avalanche allowed J.T. Compher to set up Vladislav Kamenev at the far post for a tap-in that poor Rittich had no chance on to extend their lead to 3-0.
The Flames finally got on the board late in the second period. Milan Lucic won a battle with Erik Johnson and made a pass to Derek Ryan. Ryan’s wrister beat Philipp Grubauer glove-side to cut the Avalanche lead to 3-1.
Shots were 13-11 Flames and scoring chances 7-6 Flames in the second period.
The Flames pressed in the third period, but the Avalanche played a composed, structured road game and did they best to negate the Flames’ zone time and kill the clock. They largely succeeded. The Flames cut the lead to 3-2 with four minutes left after Andrew Mangiapane buried a feed from Oliver Kylington.
But that’s as close as the Flames got and Colorado held on for the 3-2 victory, despite some strong pressure from the Flames late.

Why the Flames Lost

Grubauer was sharp all game, but so were the Avalanche. The Flames, for their part, couldn’t bury enough of their good chances when the game was close and couldn’t do enough to disrupt Colorado’s defensive scheme when it wasn’t.
The Flames weren’t awful, but this game wasn’t particularly close. Defensive lapses at key times can bury you, especially against the likes of Nathan MacKinnon.

Red Warrior

Ryan broke the shutout streak, so he gets the nod here. But his line with Dillon Dube and Lucic had jump all game long and were, weirdly, the team’s most consistent line.
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t give stick-taps to Rittich. He tried.

The Turning Point

The second Burakovsky goal was a tough one to give up. The Flames had played a pretty good first period and were 90 seconds away from escaping the first period down by a single goal.

The Numbers

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.
Corsi
For%
O-Zone
Face-Off%
Game
Score
Ryan
70.6
50.0
1.845
Monahan
65.2
33.3
1.200
Dube
63.2
50.0
0.875
Andersson
61.7
64.7
0.675
Tkachuk
60.7
50.0
0.350
Lucic
60.5
50.0
1.550
Hanifin
60.0
50.0
0.425
Mangiapane
59.1
25.0
1.400
Giordano
56.3
61.1
0.500
Davidson
55.0
40.0
0.200
Rinaldo
54.6
100
0.050
Gaudreau
48.3
70.0
-0.275
Stone
47.1
44.4
-0.025
Jankowski
45.5
75.0
-0.050
Frolik
45.5
100
0.075
Kylington
44.4
40.0
0.725
Backlund
40.0
63.6
-0.420
Lindholm
35.7
50.0
-0.715
Rittich
—
—
0.050
Talbot
—
—
—

This and That

This was the seventh consecutive game in which the Flames allowed the first goal.
The Flames put 96 shots on net between goals.
The Flames have played 302:46 without having a lead.

Up Next

The Flames (10-11-3) are headed back on the road. They’re in St. Louis on Thursday night to face the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
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