Calgary, AB (Sports Network) – Daniel Winnik scored with 2:20 to play to help the Colorado Avalanche take a 6-5 win over the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Chris Stewart notched his second career hat trick while Ryan O’Reilly finished with three assists, including the primary on the game-winner as the Avalanche snapped a three-game losing streak. Peter Budaj was tagged for five goals on 19 shots.
“This is a very big win for us,” Avs head coach Joe Sacco said. “We had some timely goal scoring.”
Niklas Hagman, Olli Jokinen and Matt Stajan each had a goal and an assist for the Flames, who had won three straight coming in. Henrik Karlsson gave up six goals on 36 shots.
Trailing by a goal heading into the third, Colorado tied the game 1:55 into the frame as Brandon Yip brought the puck out from the right boards to the front where he slipped a backhander past Karlsson.
A bit over four minutes later, the Avalanche took their first lead of the game as a turnover behind the Calgary net resulted in Paul Stastny sending a pass out front where T.J. Galiardi one-timed it past Karlsson, who was looking the other way, for a 5-4 lead.
The Flames tied the game with 5:35 to play as a turnover at the left boards was caused by Stajan, who passed it over to the right circle where Alex Tanguay shifted to the backhand and slid it past Budaj.
Colorado, though, again grabbed the lead with 2:20 left shortly after a power play expired. O’Reilly’s shot from the high slot went off a Calgary player, and Winnik grabbed the puck before shooting it past Karlsson from down low.
From there the Avs held off the Flames to take the wild win.
“We stuck with the program for the first 36 minutes, then we started getting away from why we’re good,” Flames head coach Brent Sutter said.
Calgary opened the scoring with a power-play goal from Hagman at the 6:45 mark of the first, but Colorado answered a minute later on Stewart’s power-play marker.
The Flames took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission as Cory Sarich’s slap pass from the left boards to the slot was redirected into the net by Tim Jackman with 6:19 left in the frame.
Stajan made it a 3-1 game with 8:17 left in the second on his first goal of the season, but Stewart’s wrister from the left side made its way into the right corner with 3:45 left in the middle stanza.
Stewart then completed the hat trick and tied the game 29 seconds later as his big slapper from the right circle beat Karlsson cleanly.
Calgary took a 4-3 lead into the final frame as Jokinen chipped a puck into the Colorado net off of John-Michael Liles with 1:31 left in the second.
Calgary hosts the Capitals on Saturday…Colorado hosts Columbus on Saturday…The Avs took four of six from Calgary last season…Stewart has eight goals on the young season…Calgary was 1-for-3 on the power play while Colorado was 1-for-6.