In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche got two goals from Mikko Rantanen in a 3-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
Pavel Francouz made 32 saves for the Avs in the win.
His shutout bid was spoiled by Claude Giroux late in the third period.
“In order to be consistent and to keep winning hockey games, you need above-average goaltending,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “[Francouz has] been really good all year coming in in relief, there’s been injuries, and he’s been good when given sporadic starts. Now he’s been good stringing some starts together, so it’s been great.”
The Flyers dropped to 17-9-4.
“I liked our effort,” Philadelphia coach Alain Vigneault said. “We did quite a few things that should permit you to score some goals. We weren’t able to capitalize on some of our real good looks, and that was the difference in the game.”
Matt Calvert staked the Avs to a 1-0 lead early in the opening frame.
“If we play the way we can, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games, but we’ve got to get a little more consistent than we’ve been the last two home games,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said after the win.
[WATCH:Â All Flyers vs. Avalanche highlights]
Carter Hart made 24 saves in the loss.
“We couldn’t finish today,” Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier said. “The goalie was hot, and we maybe didn’t have our best finish as we usually do. They were that much better in the execution part, but I thought we battled hard and created a lot of chances.”
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