The Colorado Avalanche didn't exactly come flying out of the gate Thursday night, but once they found their game, the Calgary Flames had a tough time keeping up.
Coming off a frustrating 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, the Avs responded with a 7-3 win in Calgary, using a big second period to take control and hand the Flames their fourth straight loss to start the season.
Devon Toews, Cale Makar and Jaden Schwartz each scored twice, while Nathan MacKinnon put up three points. Brett Kulak added two assists, and Scott Wedgewood stopped 26 shots to pick up the win despite some shaky defensive play in front of him.
It wasn't always pretty, but the Avs found their offense when they needed it.
The first period was a bit of a mess for Colorado.
A couple of turnovers in their own zone gave Calgary some dangerous chances, and Wedgewood had to bail his teammates out more than once. One of his biggest saves came on a shorthanded breakaway by Joel Farabee after Colorado's power play got off to a rough start.
The Flames were generating more pressure early, outshooting Colorado 5-2 midway through the period. The Avs weren't doing themselves any favors with the puck, either, struggling to put together much of anything offensively.
Eventually, though, they found a breakthrough.
With just over five minutes left in the period, Cale Makar found Toews in the low slot, and the defenseman redirected the puck past Flames netminder Devin Cooley to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
That was a nice change of pace for Toews, who didn't score his first goal last season until Colorado's 25th game. This time, he got on the board in Game 4.
Calgary answered before the period was over. Adam Klapka made a slick move around Josh Manson before firing a wrist shot off the post and into the net to tie things up at 1-1.
Toews took a penalty late in the period, sending the Avs into the intermission with some penalty-killing work ahead of them and plenty to clean up.
Colorado came out looking like a much different team in the second period.
After killing off the carryover penalty, the Avs got right back to work, and Toews struck again. This time, he fired from just inside the blue line, sending the puck through traffic and past Cooley to put Colorado back in front.
Then Makar got in on the fun.
MacKinnon sprung him with a pass, and Makar used his speed to blow past the Calgary defense before beating Cooley with a shot to make it 3-1.
MacKinnon got one of his own shortly afterward, finishing a feed from Zachary L'Heureux to stretch Colorado's lead to three. The Avs kept the pressure on, turning what had been a tight game into a much more comfortable one.
L'Heureux also brought some extra energy to the night, dropping the gloves with Matt Coronato late in the period. The forward was playing in just his second straight game after missing Colorado's first two contests with a lower-body injury.
The Avs headed into the third with a 4-1 lead, having found their offensive rhythm and put Calgary on its heels.
Any thoughts of a Calgary comeback took a hit pretty quickly in the third.
Makar scored again early in the period, pouncing on a loose puck after a pass from Nazem Kadri deflected off MacKinnon. He made no mistake, burying it to give Colorado a 5-1 advantage.
Schwartz followed less than a minute later, getting to a loose puck in the slot and firing it past Cooley to make it 6-1.
Calgary managed to respond with goals from Mikael Backlund and Kevin Bahl, cutting the deficit to 6-3 and briefly making things a little more interesting.
But the Avs had an answer of their own.
Schwartz scored his second of the night just over a minute after Bahl's goal, taking a backhand feed from Fedor Svechkov and beating Cooley from a sharp angle. It was Schwartz's third goal in the span of about 24 hours, following his goal in Wednesday's loss to Winnipeg.
That pretty much wrapped things up.
Colorado scored six times over the final 40 minutes, turning an uneven start into a convincing 7-3 road win.
After letting a winnable game slip away against Winnipeg, the Avs got the offensive bounce-back they needed. Toews and Makar each had two-goal nights, MacKinnon continued to produce, and Schwartz made an immediate impact with another pair of goals.
There are still some defensive issues to sort out. The early turnovers and Calgary's three goals are reminders that Colorado can't afford to get quite so loose against tougher opponents.
Still, putting seven goals on the board on the road is a pretty good way to respond to a disappointing loss.
The Avalanche will look to carry that momentum home when they face Gavin McKenna and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Ball Arena on Saturday, October 10. Puck drop is scheduled for 5 p.m. local time.
