Avalanche score 5 goals in 1st period, cruise past Flames

DENVER -- Nazem Kadri scored twice against his former team as part of a five-goal first period, and the Colorado Avalanche cruised to a 9-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Ball Arena on Monday.

“I want to win. That's as simple as it is. I don't care where I am. I want to win, and it's obviously no disrespect,” said Kadri, who was acquired in a trade with Calgary on March 6. “That’s just sports, but certainly (you feel bad) when you run up the score. But we're also trying to get better as a team, and I think they understand that.”

Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Jack Drury, and Parker Kelly each scored a goal and had two assists, and Sam Malinski had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (49-14-10), who are 5-1-0 in their past six games. Scott Wedgewood made 27 saves.

“We wanted to have a good start,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Getting on the board early and trying to jump on teams has always kind of been a hallmark of our successful home record, and we just addressed it. Like, we have some games we need to win to secure first (place), and we don't want to leave it to the bitter end. So let's make the most of these next couple home games and put ourselves in a good spot before we get out on the road.”

Defenseman Cale Makar had three assists but did not play in the third period because of an upper-body injury.

“(Makar) went out to get evaluated, we’ll know more (Tuesday),” Bednar said. “I don’t have an update, really.”

Brennan Othmann and Ryan Strome scored for the Flames (31-35-8), who had their six-game point streak end (5-0-1). Dustin Wolf allowed four goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Devin Cooley at 9:19 of the first period. Cooley made 28 saves in relief.

“We weren't very good in a lot of areas. So we'll have to address it, and then you move on from it,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “At the end of the day, it was a poor performance from our team, pretty much through and through. I thought we were very loose with our details tonight, and against a good team we can't play that way, the way we did tonight. So, we ought to make sure that we learn from it. 

“We took two poor penalties, and when you get yourself into that situation, they score on both of them, it's pretty tough to come back from.”

Drury gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 2:31 of the first period. Kelly's initial shot bounced behind the net and over to Drury, who took it off the end boards and fired it off Wolf and in at the left post.

Kadri extended it to 2-0 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 6:31. He finished Necas’ one-touch, cross-crease pass with a snap shot at the right post.

Kadri then scored on another man-advantage to make it 3-0 at 7:37. He snapped a loose puck short side under Wolf's arm from off the right post. The goalie tried to stick the rebound of Brock Nelson’s initial shot to cover up, but accidentally swatted it over to Kadri for the play.

“That won us the game. Came out with a hot start,” Kadri said. “I think we were overdue for a good start in this building. Obviously, capitalized on some power play chances and that was a big reason why we won.”

Gabriel Landeskog pushed it to 4-0 when he finished his own rebound five-hole at 9:19. Nelson fed him all alone in the high slot, and he went forehand to backhand for a snap shot.

Kelly made it 5-0 at 15:50, deflecting Makar’s point shot down and through Cooley's five-hole from the top of the crease.

“It's a lot more fun playing with the lead than it is chasing the game,” Kelly said. “I feel like the last maybe six, seven games we've been getting a lot of looks and it hasn't been going in as easy as it was to start the year. So to have a game like that, I think it was about time where stuff was going in. We're kind of back to shot, retrieve, shot, retrieve, and that led to a few goals there.”

Othmann got the Flames on the board at 5-1 at 3:37 of the second period. He knocked the puck out of the air and over Wedgewood during a goalmouth scramble. John Beecher chipped the puck away from Malinski inside the blue line and took it around the net before sending it to Othmann out front.

“It's tough against a really good offensive team to be down three in the first five (minutes), and, yeah, it wasn't acceptable, our first period. We know that,” Calgary captain Mikael Backlund said.

MacKinnon​ scored a power-play goal to make it 6-1 at 19:25 of the second. He one-timed Makar’s pass far side past Cooley's glove from above the left dot.

Necas pushed it to 7-1 at 6:24 of the third period with a wrist shot from below the right circle. Artturi Lehkonen forced a turnover behind the net to MacKinnon, who fed Necas with a backhand pass for the shot.

Malinski made it 8-1 at 8:10 when he caught a pass from Kelly at the right hash marks, moved the puck forehand to backhand and tucked it under the right leg of Cooley.

“Outstanding game again for me,” Bednar said. “Sam was involved throughout the whole game. He did an excellent job tonight.”

Strome cut it to 8-2 at 12:53 when he finished a centering pass from Yegor Sharangovich at the top of the crease. Sharangovich drew Wedgewood to the right post and passed to Strome, allowing Strome to put one in the open net for the finish.

Lehkonen scored at 16:48 for the 9-2 final. MacKinnon fed him a pass at the right post for a shot into an open net after a scramble in front.

NOTES: MacKinnon scored his 49th goal of the season and is one away from becoming the third player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to record multiple 50-goal seasons. … MacKinnon also reached the 70-assist mark for the third time in his career (also 84 in 2024-25 and 89 in 2023-24), passing Peter Forsberg (two) for the second-most 70-assist seasons in franchise history.