Devon Toews and Jaden Schwartz each scored twice, Brett Kulak had two assists and Scott Wedgewood made 26 saves in his first start of the season for the Avalanche (3-1-0), who bounced back from a 3-2 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
Adam Klapka, Mikael Backlund and Kevin Bahl scored for the Flames (0-4-0), who have yet to win a game this season. Jonathan Castagna had an assist in his NHL debut and Devin Cooley made 23 saves.
Toews opened the scoring at 15:54 of the first period to put Colorado up 1-0 when he skated to the front of the net and redirected a hard pass from Makar past Cooley.
Klapka scored at 17:30 to pull the Flames into a 1-1 tie. He toe dragged around Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson and scored on a wrist shot over Wedgewood’s blocker.
Toews scored his second of the game from the point with a wrist shot through traffic that beat Cooley over his right shoulder at 6:45 of the second period to put the Avalanche up 2-1.
Makar extended Colorado’s lead to 3-1 at 9:16 with a wrist shot from just above the right face-off dot. MacKinnon then made it 4-1 at 11:39 with a slap shot from the high slot that beat Cooley over his blocker.
Makar’s second of the game, this time off a slap shot, at 5:35 of the third period put the Avalanche up 5-1 before Schwartz scored 59 seconds later off a bumper pass from T.J. Hughes in the slot and snapped it in to make it 6-1 at 6:34. The assist marked Hughes' first NHL point.
Backlund tipped a pass from Ryan Strome past Wedgewood at 7:17 before Bahl’s shot from the slot deflected in off Avalanche defenseman Noah Juulsen’s stick to cut the lead to 6-3 at 8:28.
A wrist shot by Schwartz bounced off Flames defenseman Jacob Middleton and past Cooley at 9:41 for the 7-3 final.
