(Sports Network) - Colorado lost its No. 1 goaltender prior to its more recent game. The club then went on to lose its third straight contest.
The hard-lucked Avalanche will be without netminder Craig Anderson this evening when they visit the Calgary Flames and Scotiabank Saddledome.
Anderson was scheduled to get Tuesday's game in Vancouver off and injured his knee during pregame warmups. While the rest of his club headed to Calgary following a 4-3 overtime loss, Anderson returned to Denver and it was announced by the club on Wednesday that he is out indefinitely, but his injury won't require surgery.
Peter Budaj made his scheduled start in Vancouver and made 27 saves. He did allow the game-winning goal just 28 seconds into overtime as the Avalanche fell to 0-2-1 in their last three games.
Colorado fired 39 shots at Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo and got goals from David Jones, Daniel Winnik and Matt Duchene, who forced overtime with his game-tying tally with 1:33 left in regulation.
"He played very well," Jones said of Luongo. "We put a lot of shots on him. It wasn't easy to score."
Defenseman John-Michael Liles stretched his season-opening assist streak to nine games, a new record to start a season by an NHL defenseman. He passed Filip Kuba's eight-game run to start the 2008-09 season with Ottawa.
Budaj, who made just his second start of the season on Tuesday, figures to handle the bulk of the time in net with Anderson out and is 6-9-1 with a 3.49 goals-against average versus the Flames.
He did not face them last year when the Avalanche took four of the six meetings. Calgary did win the last two meetings to snap a six-game series losing streak and has lost three straight at home to Colorado.
Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff is 1-4-1 with a 2.66 GAA in his last six outings versus the Avalanche. Celebrating his 34th birthday on Tuesday, he made 28 saves in a 5-4 shootout win over Edmonton.
Brendan Morrison scored twice, his 14th career multi-goal game and first since Nov. 6, 2009, and Alex Tanguay had the game-winner in the shootout. Curtis Glencross and Jay Bouwmeester also scored for Calgary, has won three straight and five of its last six overall. The club has also won the first two contests of a five-game homestand and is 4-1-0 at the Saddledome this year.
"At the end of the day we still get two points and won a hockey game," Flames head coach Brent Sutter said. "Not every game is going to be a perfect game, there's going to be bumps along the way."
Calgary forward Craig Conroy is expected to skate in his 1,000th career game tonight and will be honored for the achievement prior to the drop of the puck.