In Denver, Darcy Kuemper made 46 saves and the Avalanche downed the Calgary Flames, 3-0, on Sunday night.
“I’m really fortunate to play for such a great team and have such great players in front of me,” Kuemper said. “It makes my job a lot easier every night, and it’s been a lot of fun getting a lot of wins.”
Nathan MacKinnon hit for a double for the Avs.
Colorado improved to 42-13-5.
“We worked hard and we were an honest team tonight. Their big guys scored and ours didn’t. Look at who scored the goals. They’re a little more schooled than we are in terms of playing low, close games,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “When that happens, your big guys have to finish their opportunities.”
Mikko Rantanen hit a late empty-net goal for the 3-0 final.
“[MacKinnon is] playing well. He’s playing two-way hockey, and he’s scoring a lot. There was never a doubt that he can’t score,” Rantanen said. “He’s playing really well, but he was playing well before that, too, it just wasn’t going in. So I’m really happy for him, and it’s good for our team, too.”
Calgary fell to 36-16-7.
“It was one that we should win,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They played last night. They come in late. You add an hour when you’re clearing customs. You lose an hour again because of the time change. They’ve played a lot of hockey, as have we, and traveling. So it wears you out. It looked to me like we just had a little more jump tonight.”
Dan Vladar made 29 saves in the Flames loss.
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