#1 Calgary Flames @ Colorado Avalanche 2-3 - Sat, Mar 14, 2015

A sellout crowd that included two Hockey From Across The Pond Correspondents watched the Colorado Avalanche gather further momentum in their race for a playoff berth and extinguished the red hot flames.


Alex Tanguay contributed with a goal and an assist in the Avs victory over the in-form flames at the Pepsi Center. They have 13 games remaining, plus ground to make up and several teams to jump over to secure a Western Conference playoff berth. It's daunting, both because of the points involved and a stretch-run schedule that includes the next five on the road and only five at home. But while a case can be made that this team's regression after a startling 2013-14 season has been disappointing, this also is undeniable: Colorado hasn't given up just yet. With defenseman Erik Johnson unavailable the past six weeks and forward Nathan MacKinnon out since the previous week with various injuries, Colorado have gone 10-4 over the past 14 games.


Semyon Varlamov had 29 saves as the Flames lost in regulation for the first time this month. Calgary had scored 28 goals in going 5-0-1 in their previous six games, including a 6-3 win over the Leafs at home the previous night. The game was scoreless until Colorado scored twice in 107 seconds midway through the second period. First, Tanguay got his 19th goal of the season on a power play at 9:40. From slightly below the goal line to Calgary goalie Karri Ramo's right, Tanguay shot the puck off Ramo's pad and in. Then O'Reilly took a pass from Tanguay, broke in on Ramo and beat the Flames goalie to the short side to put the Avs up 2-0.
The Flames were within 2-1 after former Avs winger David Jones got credit for the goal at 3:54 of the third, when Mikael Backlund's pass went off his skate and past Varlamov. Only 28 seconds later, Mitchell made a nifty move and scored from the right circle to put Colorado back up by two. But the Flames' Lance Bouma beat Varlamov at 5:28 to make it 3-2. With a key penalty kill after Jan Hejda went off for interference at 12:05, the Avalanche managed to hang on.


Game in a NutshellTanguay and Ryan O'Reilly scored 1:47 apart in the second period to give the Avalanche their 2-0 lead. The Flames battled back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits, and they applied plenty of pressure against Varlamov during a late third-period power play and inside the final two minutes during a 6-on-5 advantage with goalie Karri Ramo on the bench. Colorado defenseman Jan Hejda was called for interference with 7:55 remaining, but Varlamov made two saves and the Avalanche killed the penalty. After penalty-killer Nick Holden, lost his stick with about 30 seconds left on the power play, Marc-Andre Cliche handed his to the defenseman. 

Avs Quotes

Alex Tanguay: "For sure, we'll keep an eye on everything's that's going on. But for us it's about winning our games. If we don't keep winning we're not going to give ourselves a chance. Yes, we'd like to have some help from other teams, but we have to do what we have to do in order to give ourselves that chance. When you're on [the power play] for a while we had some chances so maybe [Ramo] was a little bit tired. He was off his angle, so why not? I just tried it and fortunately for us it found the back of the net."
Patrick Roy: "We always believed in ourselves. The mindset of our players was, 'Let's get a shot at it,' and our guys have been playing hard and practicing hard and coming and being ready every time we touch the ice. The guys played really hard and really well. I thought it was a great team effort and a good game to have a solid effort like that. I'm very proud of our group, first of all because they've been resilient. We're not happy about the start of our season, but the one thing I'm going to say is that our guys have been very resilient and even very receptive. I've been preaching the partnership and they've been great partners for me. Are we perfect? No. But are we learning? Yes. ... It is part of the process."
Semyon Varlamov: "They try to screen the goalie all the time so it was really important for me to see the puck. That was a mess in front of the net."
John Mitchell: "The guy was kind of there and I turned like I was going to wrist it at the net and I think I kind of froze him and he tried to block it. I just thought, 'I'm going to try something here, pull it on the inside.' Thank God it worked out because if he pokes at it, we could be in trouble. I'm glad that it worked out. [Matt Duchene] was in front of the net with a little bit of a screen. I had a lot of time to walk in and get a good wrister off."

Flames Quotes

Bob Hartley was disappointed with the result, but not the effort:
"We battled like usual. We can always count on our players to show up in a fight and give everything we had. I thought we deserved way better."
David Jones: "I thought it was going to count, but you never know. It's tough to be down 2-0 and then try to fight back. We've been on the good side of things so much this year. We've [rallied] so many times that we have faith. We just came up a little short tonight. That third goal really hurt us."

Scoring
1-0 - 29:40 PPG - Tanguay Asst Iginla, Barrie - Tanguay scored a power-play goal after the Flames were penalized for having too many men on the ice. Jarome Iginla got the puck to Tanguay along the goal line to Ramo's right, and Tanguay shot the puck off the goalie's pad and into the net.
2-0 - 31:24 EHG - O'Reilly Asst Tanguay, Guenin - Nate Guenin gained possession in his own end and passed to Tanguay, who brought the puck up ice and got it to O'Reilly in the right circle behind two Flames defenders. He cut to the net and shot the puck past Ramo's glove for his first goal in 18 games and 11th of the season.
2-1 - 43:54 EHG - Jones Asst Backlund, Bouma - The Flames got within a goal when Mikael Backlund threw a backhand pass through the goalmouth that bounced off David Jones' skate and into the net. The goal was confirmed after a video review.
3-1 - 44:22 EHG - Mitchell Asst Duchene, Barrie - John Mitchell maneuvered around Flames defenseman TJ Brodie in the right circle, took a couple of strides toward the net and beat Ramo to the short side.
3-2 - 45:48 EHG - Bouma Asst Jones, Backlund - The Flames made it a one-goal game again at 5:48 when Lance Bouma skated into the Avalanche zone and took a shot that sailed past Varlamov's stick.


Stats
- Alex Tanguay finished the game with a goal and an assist.



- Semyon Varlamov extended his winning streak to a season-best five games. He has a 1.00 goals-against average and .968 save percentage during the streak. He made 29 Saves against the flames.
- The Avalanche have won five of their past six games and 10 of 14.


- Colorado closed to five points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They were 10 points out of the playoffs as recently as March 3.


- The Flames went 0-for-3 on power plays after going 7-for-19 in their five previous games. The Avalanche have killed 26 of 27 penalties and 34 of the past 36.


- This was Colorado's 10th sellout crowd of the season.


- Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla were both facing their former side.


Stars of the Game
1 Alex Tanguay
2 John Mitchell
3 Semyon Varlamov