Not Quite Enough

DENVER - With the amount of firepower staring them down on the other side, they knew nothing would come easy.

It didn't.

And early on, the Flames were a step behind.

Mikael Backlund scored his fourth of the season and Dan Vladar made 20 saves, but the Flames dropped a 3-1 decision to the Avalanche to close out a four-game road trip.

For the second time in three games, the Flames missed out on a chance to pull back to .500.

They return home with a 2-2 record on the trip, along with an 8-10-3 mark overall.

"Not our best game, but we stayed in it until the end," Backlund said. "We some chances, but at the end of the day, it wasn't our best game of the trip. It was a tight game, but we didn't deserve to win."

The Flames outshot the Avs 16-6 in the third and 31-24 overall as they pressed to get back in the game, but the offence was unable to kick into high gear.

"I thought we were slow in the first period and they had a little bit more speed than we did," said Head Coach Ryan Huska. "But the second and third periods, I thought we consistently got better. I thought we played much faster in the neutral zone and had much more zone time than we had in the first period.

"We're getting ourselves closer to .500 and we can't find a way to get that game to get there. That's the next step. This is a .500 road trip for us.

"Now we have to go home and make sure we perform well at home."

It was penalty-filled opening few minutes with three separate infractions called to give both teams a crack on the powerplay. While the Flames, arguably, got the best chance prior to the calls when Connor Zary broke in alone and drew a slashing penalty, the Avs had nearly four straight minutes of PP shortly thereafter as MacKenzie Weegar (interference) and Blake Coleman (goaltender inference on a shorthanded 2-on-1) tilted the ice.

With 33 seconds in the Coleman minor, Jonathan Drouin gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead as he took a feed from Mikko Rantanen in a soft spot off the rush, skated into the lane and beat Vladar with a perfectly placed shot over the pad.

Vladar was called upon to make a massive stop with under five to play in the period with MacKenzie Weegar turned the puck over to Andrew Cogliano in the slot. Cogliano dished off to Joel Kiviranta for a one-timer at the bottom of the circle, but the 6-foot-5 puck-stopper splayed out to block it with the left pad.

It was a tough period for the Flames, who had trouble containing Colorado’s speed off the rush, forcing them into mistakes like the one above.

Shots on goal favoured the Avs 10-4 after one.

While it was a quieter start to the middle frame, the Avalanche were still carrying the play and generating the better looks offensively. Near the seven-minute mark of the period, Rantanen broke in alone but rang a shot off the post, maintaining the slim, one-goal advantage.

Just when it looked like the Flames were starting to grab some of the momentum back, a turnover at the offensive blueline proved costly as the Avs turned it right back and opened up a two-goal lead at 10:10.

Ryan Johansen – who blocked Nikita Zadorov’s pass at the right point – showed great speed as he chased down a loose puck, creating a partial break for himself. But with Dennis Gilbert closing in and cutting off the angle, Johansen took it all the way around the net and scoring on a backhand wrap.

To their credit, the Flames kept at it – and less than two minutes after the Johansen tally – Backlund trimmed the deficit with an absolute beauty, courtesy of his linemates.

Blake Coleman delivered a beautiful pass to Jonathan Huberdeau to the goalmouth, and instead of simply firing into the pads of goalie Ivan Prosvetov, Huberdeau pulled up and showed great touch with a pass through the feet of Caleb Jones and onto the stick of the captain.

\chef's kiss\

Sadly for the visitors, the Avs got it right back as Nathan MacKinnon beat a screened Vladar at 12:37 – only 34 ticks after the Backlund strike.

"Those ones are tough ones (to give up)," Huska said. "We can defend that a little bit better than what we did, for sure. When you give those up in short order after scoring a goal, it's momentum for the other side when we really want to push at that point."

Things got a bit spicy in the third when Ross Colton had a pair of chances to extend the lead, but Vladar - and his defencemen - were up to the task. His first chance was a point-blank look from the goalmouth, with nothing but net between him and the insurance marker, but Rasmus Andersson dropped to one knee and blocked the attempt, before the rebound scuttled safely under Vladar.

"I feel like parts of our game could have allowed us to get a point at worst tonight," Huska said. "We gave up a powerplay goal and we don't score any on our opportunities - and a lot of times in close games, that's the difference."

One-Timers:

The Avalanche organization honoured the Snow family with a ceremonial faceoff prior to puck drop. In addition to the touching pregame ceremony, which featured photos and video from Chris’ incredible career with the Flames, the Avs announced they would be donating $10,000 to ALS research in his honour.

There was another fun twist to the evening, as Willa Snow read out the starting lineup in the Flames dressing room, while Cohen Snow handled the duties in the Avs’ room.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Andrew Mangiapane - Elias Lindholm - Yegor Sharangovich
Connor Zary - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil
Jonathan Huberdeau - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman
A.J. Greer - Adam Ruzicka - Dillon Dube

Defence

MacKenzie Weegar - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - Chris Tanev
Dennis Gilbert - Nikita Zadorov

Goaltender

Dan Vladar

Scratches: Walker Duehr, Nick DeSimone

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 31, COL 24

Powerplay: CGY 0-for-4, COL 1-for-4

Faceoffs: CGY 47.5%, COL 52.5%

Blocked Shots: CGY 13, COL 19

Hits: CGY 14, COL 13

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 28, COL 23

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 10, COL 11

Up Next:

The Flames return to the friendly confines of the Scotiabank Saddledome when they kick off a six-game homestand with our annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night on Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights (click here for tickets).