Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves, including one on Trevor Zegras’ third-period penalty shot, and the visiting Colorado Avalanche beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Sunday.
Blackwood started games on consecutive days for the first time this season and came up huge late with 13 stops in the third for the Avalanche, who won both ends of their back-to-back.
Brent Burns, Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado. Six players earned assists for the Avalanche, including Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas.
Sean Couturier celebrated his 33rd birthday and 900th career game with his fifth goal of the season for the Flyers, and Travis Konecny also scored.
Samuel Ersson stopped 25 shots for the Flyers, who lost for the second time in three games.
Zegras had a chance to tie the game on his penalty shot with 15:06 in regulation after MacKinnon held the Flyers’ co-leader in goals on a breakaway.
However, Zegras, who is 4-for-4 in shootout attempts this season, put the puck squarely into an upright Blackwood.
Playing for the first time since Wednesday, Philadelphia scored 2:09 into the game when Couturier deflected Noah Juulsen’s off-target shot into the net with the shaft of his stick.
From there, Colorado, playing for the third time in four days, took control. The Avalanche outshot their hosts 12-3 in the first period.
Burns tied the game with 11:32 to go in the opening period. His fourth of the season, from the top of the right circle, came off a pass from Necas, who got his 25th assist.
Nelson added a power-play goal in the final minute of the first to give Colorado a 2-1 lead. MacKinnon and Makar assisted.
Nichushkin increased the lead less than two minutes into the second by taking a cross-ice pass from Victor Olofsson and beating Ersson from the right circle.
Konecny got one back for the Flyers with 14:02 left in the middle period. The winger positioned himself in the neutral zone behind the Avalanche defensemen and Emil Andrae sprung him with a two-line pass for the breakaway goal.
–Field Level Media
