It was a night where there were more treats than tricks as the Colorado Avalanche hosted the Calgary Flames on Halloween night. The game began well after the candy was handed out but Colorado tasted the sweet 5-2 victory at the end of the night. Artturi Lehkonen continued his hot streak with two goals and Cale Makar finished with four assists.
The Game
To start this game, the Avalanche generated many shots but no goals until Nathan MacKinnon broke through with just over five minutes remaining in the first period. A rebound found it’s way right to MacKinnon in his favorite spot on the left side and he nailed the post and it bounced into the net behind Arsenii Sergeev making his second career NHL start for the Flames. Calgary got a few good looks on Mackenzie Blackwood but he shut the door especially on Matt Coronato by making a sprawling save with eight seconds to go to preserve the 1-0 lead.
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On this Halloween night things got scary as the Avalanche received a power play early in the second period. As the first unit remained on the ice for nearly the full duration, Martin Nečas finally scored from the left circle and continued his hot streak of scoring on Halloween.
Minutes later, Arturri Lehkonen continued his own hot streak scoring his 11th goal on the season and Brock Nelson soon after. At that point the game entered garbage time as the clock began approaching midnight both on the evening and this game. Calgary tried to make it interesting when Joel Farabee made a spin move at the net front and finally got on the board to make it 4-1. Nothing much else happened in the period except for Brock Nelson got hit in the head on a Cale Makar shot but he returned to the bench by the start of the third period.
Speaking of the final frame, Colorado was feeling generous when a Brent Burns turnover behind the net led to a Martin Pospisil goal. Two minutes later, however, the Avalanche got it back as a Cale Makar shot was deflected by Lehkonen for his 12th goal of the season. Not much else happened other than Fedor Svechkov got chopped in the face and had to leave the ice for repairs and the Avalanche got a four-minute power play but they couldn’t cash in. Therefore the 5-2 score stood at the final horn and Colorado secured their victory.
Takeaways
Lehkonen is on pace for 72 goals this season after scoring his 12th in 14 games. Never mind that it’s on 28 shots on goal or what the ramifications of this will be but the Avalanche will take a hot streak to help them in the standings right now.
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The four points he generated tonight is a sesson-high for Cale Makar. His high mark previous to this was a three-point effort when the Avalanche visited the Flames earlier in the month. That’s nearly half of the 15 points Makar has on the year courtesy of Calgary. The Avalanche don’t see the Flames again until April so Cale will have to find a new favorite team to play against.
Upcoming
The start of another quick road trip featuring a back-to-back. The fun begins on Monday, November 2nd at the Chicago Blackhawks. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. MT.
