The Colorado Avalanche managed to tie their first-round series with the Calgary Flames on Saturday night after Nathan MacKinnon found the back of the net in overtime.
The Calgary Flames managed to take the lead with Sean Monahan’s goal at 12:27, but the Avs tied it up again at 17:21, when J.T. Compher scored his first career playoff goal.
However, it was all over when MacKinnon scored at 8:27 in overtime, with Colorado tying the series 1-1 with the 3-2 win.
The Flames admit that the Avs were the better team on Saturday night and though Calgary’s goalie Mike Smith had another stunning performance, it wasn’t enough.
"They seemed hungrier than us. Seemed like they wanted it more than us," said Flames left winger Sam Bennett, who had two assists. "No one is happy with the way we played in the first couple periods. (Smith) bailed us out too many times to count. He's been playing great and we've got to do a better job in front of him."
Colorado’s coach Jared Bednar credited his team’s goaltender with keeping the team alive in the series.
"First of all, (Grubauer) makes the save and it's a big save because of the time and the score and you're in overtime and he made a lot of big saves tonight, as did Smith, but to give us that save at that time... Then we get up the ice and (Rantanan) and (MacKinnon) execute unbelievably and we get the goal.”
Matt Nieto and J.T. Compher also scored for the Avalanche. Rasmus Andersson and Sean Monahan replied for the Flames.
The series continues on Monday night with Game 3 at the Pepsi Center in Colorado.
(With files from The Canadian Press)
