By Canadian Press

Mikko Rantanen’s four-point night lifts Avalanche over Flames 6-2

Mar 12, 2024 | 9:11 PM

CALGARY — Mikko Rantanen had two goals and two assists on Tuesday night to extend his point streak to 10 games and lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 6-2 NHL victory over the Calgary Flames.

Fourteen of Rantanen’s 18 points over that span are assists and his 10-game assist streak is a career-best.

Valeri Nichushkin, with a goal and two assists, also had a big night offensively for Colorado (41-20-5). Nathan MacKinnon, Josh Manson and trade deadline acquisition Casey Mittelstadt, with his first with his new team, also scored.

MacKinnon also had an assist as he extended his point streak to 13 games (9 goals, 19 assists) and set a career-high in points, surpassing the 111 he put up last season. MacKinnon leads the league in points, six up on Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.

The Avs pull into a tie with idle Winnipeg for second in the tightly contested Central Division. The Jets hold two games in hand. Dallas, who lost to Florida, leads the division by two points.

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Daniil Miromanov, with his first goal as a Flame, and Walker Duehr scored for Calgary (31-29-5). The Flames have lost three games in a row by a combined score of 18-5.

Coming off shutouts in his two previous starts, rookie Avs goaltender Justus Annunen made 25 saves to improve to 4-2-1.

Dan Vladar, pulled after two periods having surrendered six goals on 35 shots, was tagged with the loss to fall to 8-9-2. Rookie Dustin Wolf made three stops in relief.

Thanks to several big stops by Vladar, the Flames were up 2-1 after 20 minutes despite being outshot 19-9 by the visitors.

But the dam burst in the second with Colorado erupting for five unanswered goals to blow the game open.

Fifty-eight seconds after Manson tied it at 4:52, MacKinnon sniped his 41st goal, wiring the game-winner into the top corner from a sharp angle after being set up by a cross-ice pass from Nichushkin.

Making it three goals in three minutes, Nichushkin took a cross-ice feed from Rantanen and snapped his 24th goal past Vladar to make it 4-2.

In his second game since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres, Mittelstadt burst through the Flames defence and made it 5-2 at 14:10.

Rantanen’s second of the night at 19:14 capped off the barrage.

The first period started off well for Colorado with Rantanen opening the scoring on the power play at 2:05.

But Calgary drew even at 3:24 when Miromanov’s slapshot went off an Avs stick and over Annunen’s shoulder.

The Flames took a 2-1 lead at 6:46 on Duehr’s first goal in 31 games. Duehr, who wasn’t supposed to play, drew in when Andrew Mangiapane (illness) was scratched shortly before game time.

HOME DEBUTS

Three Flames defencemen made their first appearance at the Saddledome. Miromanov and Nikita Okhotiuk were acquired last week via trades. Joel Hanley was claimed on waivers. It was the first game for Calgary for Okhotiuk, who drew in as the seventh defenceman when Andrei Kuzmenko (upper body) was a late scratch.

WOLF RECALLED

Jacob Markstrom was supposed to start, but the club announced in the afternoon that the Flames No. 1 goaltender was out with a lower-body injury, prompting the club to call up Wolf from the Calgary Wranglers (AHL) to be the backup.

UP NEXT

Avalanche: Continue their road trip on Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.

Flames: Play host to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2024.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press