DENVER — Ivan Prosvetov hasn’t seen much playing time since joining the Avalanche on the eve of the regular season. But the team’s backup netminder was sharp in his third start, making 29 saves to earn his second victory.
The Avalanche defeated the Calgary Flames 3-1 on Saturday, extending their winning streak to three games, all of which have come in the last four nights. Colorado (14-6-0) also improved to 7-2-0 on home ice thanks to Prosvetov’s performance, which included 15 saves in the third period to keep the Avs ahead by two goals until the final buzzer sounded.
Prosvetov has had ample time to work with goalie coach Jussi Parkkila since joining the Avalanche and credits him for his ability to stay in game shape despite not playing in more than two weeks.
“Jussi keeps me in shape. He does a good job,” Prosvetov said following his fifth career NHL win. “Kind of doing those drills in practice, the game-like situations like the low drives and stuff like that. Probably 50% of the saves I made today we were doing in practice with Jussi. It’s makes it easier.”
It was an all-around sloppy performance, as both teams played the previous night and flew into Denver late. The Avalanche, on the tail end of their first back-to-back of the season, were the better team. And at times it felt like the Flames were a step or two behind. At least for the first half of the game.
Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avs, who never trailed at any point. Colorado is 6-1-0 in its past seven games since an embarrassing 8-2 loss to St. Louis at home two weeks ago.
“We’re playing a better overall team game for 200 feet right now,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “I think there’s still other levels that we’re going to need to get to but right now I feel comfortable where we’re at and we’re winning games. It seems like more of a mature game from our group.”
The Avs drew two penalties in the early stages of the game after successfully killing off an early penalty to Johansen. On their second opportunity, Drouin collected a slick pass from Mikko Rantanen and buried it for his third of the season. It extended Colorado’s streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal to seven. Drouin’s goal was the only one in the first period.
The score held firm at 1-0 until midway through the second when both teams combined for three goals in just over two minutes. First, Johansen pulled off an incredible individual effort to double up the Avs’ lead. Johansen blocked a shot in his own zone before chasing the loose puck the other way for a breakaway attempt. By the time he gained full control of the puck, he ran out of room to make a play. Johansen decided instead to try a wrap-around, which surprised goalie Dan Vladar, who was too late getting over.
It was Johansen’s seventh of the season.
“I was running out of options quickly,” Johansen said. “So the next best thing would be a wraparound and it worked.”
Less than two minutes later, Flames captain Mikael Backlund beat Prosvetov off a nice feed from Jonathan Huberdeau. The Flames found themselves back within a goal.
But it was short-lived.
34 seconds later, MacKinnon fired a trick shot floater from the blueline with several bodies screening Vladar. The puck found its way into the back of the net for MacKinnon’s seventh of the year and first in eight games. MacKinnon also assisted on the Drouin goal, which extended his season-opening home point streak to nine games, a new Avalanche franchise record.
“He tends to have stretches throughout the course of every year where he gets snakebit a little bit,” Bednar said of Mackinnon’s scoring slump. “He’s still generating some good chances and doesn’t put the puck in the net.”
MacKinnon has a whopping 19 points in 12 games in November. But this was just his third goal.
“He’s still picking up a lot of points on production with helping his linemates, but he also tends to get hot every once in a while and ride his streak for a while,” Bednar said. “So I think he’s been a little bit frustrated but he continues to work and tries to do the right things.”
Defenseman Cale Makar was credited with the secondary assist on MacKinnon’s goal. It was his 30th point of the year, 25 of which have been helpers. Makar left the game for the last part of the first period after blocking a shot but returned to start the second period. He finished with three blocked shots in 22:33. Makar is the fifth player in the NHL to reach 30 points thus far.
