Avs singed in Calgary, 5-3

In Calgary, the Flames surrendered the first goal of the game to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night, then reeled off five straight in a 5-3 win over the Avs.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri debuted in their new Flames sweaters, each had an assist in the win.

“We’re going to try to contribute as much as possible,” Kadri said. “I don’t know if that’s going to result on the scoreboard every single time, but we find different ways to contribute and, you know, we play as a team, and that’s the most important thing.”

Bowen Byram opened the scoring with the Avs’ goal on Colorado’s fist shot on net.

Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves in the Calgary win.

The Flames tied the game, 1-1, shortly after the Avs grabbed the lead, on a goal from Brett Ritchie.

Dillon Dube gave the Flames the lead  early in the middle frame, 2-1.

Later in the second, Rasmus Andersson  pushed the lead to 3-1 for Calgary.

“All three are really good players, as we knew,” Andersson said. “I think, obviously, it’s nice for them to get that, the points, so they don’t have to think about it too much.”

In the third period, Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm  scored for Calgary to put them up 5-1.

“Five-on-five, there’s definitely some things to work on,” Calgary’s MacKenzie Weegar said. “I think when it was 5-1 we kind of thought we were going to take it over and that was going to be the game, but we’ve got to never get satisfied, play hard the whole 60 minutes.”

Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin (power play) scored in the third period after the game was already out of hand for the 5-3 final.

“I think there’s a lot to learn,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “I feel like, obviously, defending champs come into a building like this, completely new team, everybody’s excited. We knew it was going to be a challenge. I feel like overall at certain points in the game we rose to the occasion, but we let it get away from us. That’s a learning experience for us.”

Pavel Francouz made 22 saves in the Avs loss.

“It’s their home opener so you know they’re going to come out with a lot of juice, and they brought it to us,” Colorado forward Evan Rodrigues said. “I think once we simplified the game and not try to be too cute with it, that’s when we started to have success in the third. But it was just too little, too late.”