In Denver, Nathan MacKinnon struck for two goals to give the Colorado Avalanche a 2-0 lead and they never looked back in defeating the Calgary Flames, 6-2, for a 2-1 series lead.
“We’re just trying to get to four wins,” MacKinnon said. “We’re being very aggressive and guys were involved with a shooting mentality. We feel good, but at the same time, we got to move on. It’s two wins now, but we need to regroup and get ready for a huge game Wednesday.”
Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves in the win.
Sam Bennett and TJ Brodie scored for the Flames.
“They had a lot of quality looks. We’ve got to regroup here and stick together as a team,” Mark Giordano said after the disappointing loss. “We know our compete level, No. 1, has to go way up. We have to be smarter with our decisions with the puck, everything across the board. There wasn’t much good, honestly, throughout the night. Made that team look and feel good all night. They looked like they were making plays and feeling good about themselves. We’ll come back and regroup, and we need to win this next one and get it back to our home-ice advantage.”
Cale Makar made his NHL debut with the Avs in the game and scored his first NHL goal.
“I thought [Makar] was good, right from the get-go he was involved. He looked calm, cool, collected. He obviously makes a nice play jumping up in the rush and getting the goal, getting his shot off, and there was some deception to it,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “And then he followed it up with a big play in the defensive zone when we got caught on a short 2-on-1 down the boards and a guy open at the net. He lays his stick down, breaks it up, and it comes back to him and he still gets another block. I liked him. He uses his legs, he executes, he was good tonight.”
Erik Johnson, Matt Nieto and Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avs.
[WATCH: Flames vs. Avalanche Game 3 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Mike Smith made 50 saves in the loss.
“It’s one game, it’s a long series,” Smith said. “They outworked us tonight, they outscored us. They were better in a lot of areas. The great thing about the NHL playoffs, you have to win four. You have to have that mindset.”
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