NO LUCK IN COLORADO
Avalanche burn Flames
AVALANCHE 6, FLAMES 3
It’s fair to say the phone lines haven’t been buzzing. Not from Denver to Calgary. Not from Calgary to Denver. Despite the longtime relationship between coaches Patrick Roy and Bob Hartley, despite the plights of their respective squads, they haven’t been crying on each other’s shoulders.
Even in the midst of dreary three- win campaigns.
“I don’t want to hear his problems and he doesn’t want to hear my problems,” Roy, chuckling, said after the Colorado Avalanche’s morning skate. “I think he’s having enough and I have enough.
“We’ll just worry about our teams right now.”
As it turned out, Roy’s worries were alleviated — slightly — as his Avs rolled past the Calgary Flames 6- 3 in National Hockey League action Tuesday at the Pepsi Center. Roy’s bunch improves to 4- 7- 1. Hartley’s squad remains as miserable as ever — 3- 9- 1. The sag continues.
“That’s the story of the start of our season right now — breakdowns,” said Hartley. “We lost the battle along the wall ( on Nathan MacKinnon’s game- winner) — a 3- 3 game and the puck’s in our net. That’s where it is. We have to get dirtier in critical areas, in critical times of the game. That’s why we lost.
“You have to compete on every shift. On that winning goal ... it’s not reads, it’s compete level.”
The Flames had this thing deadlocked on Mark Giordano’s goal in the third period.
They then collapsed, allowing three goals in a four- minute stretch.
“Yeah, it is frustrating,” said Sam Bennett, the best of the travellers on this night. “It is frustrating when you can can’t hang onto the game when we tie it up like that.”
Because Giordano’s equalizer simply set the stage for three unanswered strikes by the Avs — MacKinnon, Matt Duchene on the power play, Jarome Iginla into an empty net.
“Obviously frustrating we didn’t get the win,” Kris Russell said. “It’s obviously disappointing. We had some good efforts out of some guys tonight.”
Namely, Johnny Gaudreau, who, especially through the first half of the game, was strong. He scored in the second period.
And T. J. Brodie, who picked up one assist and was plus- three. ( By contrast, Dennis Wideman was minus- four.)
And Bennett, who, in the second period alone, picked up one goal and one assist — and had two other goals disallowed. (“I looked at the replays. It’s frustrating, but I think the refs made the right call.”) No matter, No. 93 looked strong. “Sam was real good offensively,” said Hartley. “He was the player that generated the most for us. You can see a will to compete, a will to create. He had great intensity.”
Also scoring for the Avs were Matt Duchene, Iginla, in the second period, and Erik Johnson, who bagged a shortie.
“To lose like that is frustrating,” said Russell. “That’s the way the game is now. It’s based on skill, scoring, speed. You’re never going to have perfect games, but it’s what you do after ( you’ve been scored on). But it is frustrating.”
Particularly when defensive play had been singled out lately. The Flames coughed up their sixth straight game of four or more goals against — and eight of the past nine.
Russell couldn’t pinpoint the problem.
“I don’t know, but it’s got to change,” he said. “Obviously, we’re giving up way too many goals. In this league, you just can’t win like that. And we’re really not a runandgun skilled team.
“Defensively, it’s huge for us — something we really have to clean up.”
Getting behind doesn’t help, either.
Last season, the Flames made a name for themselves, rally after rally. The magic is all used up. “I think we got a lot of luck last year,” said David Jones.
“Yeah, we worked hard and earned it. But there’s no way we’re going to be able to come back as many times as we did last year. We’ve got to be able to get out front and create a lead, then try to play the game that way.
“It’s tough in this league to come back. It’s frustrating. We made some mistakes that they took advantage of. As much as we got a lot of chances, we did that at the expense of giving up some offence on their end.”