In Calgary, the good time train the Colorado Avalanche have been riding came to an abrupt side spur with a 4-0 loss to the Flames on Thursday night.
Calgary leads the series 1-0.
Mike Smith made 26 stops for the shutout in Game 1 – file photo by Jack Lima
Mike Smith made 26 saves to get the shutout.
“This time of year, you want to do your best,” Smith said. “You want to feel like you’re contributing. I wanted this to be one of my better games of the year. I don’t know if you ever quite feel it. You just make one save at a time, and fortunately I was able to shut them down.”
Following a scoreless first period, the Flames struck twice in each of the second and third periods.
Matthew Tkachuk scored goals for the Flames.
“It’s always nice when your goalie plays the way he did tonight,” Tkachuk said. “I even thought our team defense was pretty solid. We didn’t give up too much in front of him. We gave up a couple, but they’ve got good players over there, that stuff’s going to happen. I thought all in all it was a good win.”
Avs, who had won eight of their last 11 regular season games, were stymied by the Flames defense.
“The majority of this game I liked the way we played,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “I liked the speed we played with. We were able to create some zone time, but at the same time, I’d like to get something in front of Smith and take away his eyes. He’s a big goalie. He makes the saves he needs to. I’d like to test him a little bit more.”
Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary.
“I liked [our] start coming into an energized building against an energized team. Overall, I didn’t think we did enough to win the hockey game, there weren’t more than a handful of players I was happy with,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said after the loss.
Tkachuk’s second goal was an empty-netter on which SMith picked up an assist.
“He was awesome tonight, made a couple great glove saves, big pad saves,” Tkachuk said. “He was great tonight. Playing the puck, giving me so much time on the empty-netter. Great play by him. Not many people see that. He was awesome tonight.”
[WATCH: Avalanche vs. Flames Game 1 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves in the loss.
“Margin of error and the difference isn’t big this time of year, but he was definitely a difference-maker,” Landeskog said of Smith. “Made some big saves when they needed him.”
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