Cale Makar scored two goals as the Colorado Avalanche started their four-game road trip with a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
Casey Mittelstadt added a goal and an assist, while Mikko Rantanen set up two goals for Colorado, which has won four of its last five games. Justus Annunen made 24 saves in goal for the Avalanche.
Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster scored for Philadelphia, which lost in regulation for the first time in six games. Aleksei Kolosov made 26 saves in net for the Flyers, stepping in for Samuel Ersson, who was out with a lower-body injury.
Colorado led 3-0 until Philadelphia scored twice in less than two minutes during the second half of the third period.
First, Tippett scored with a wrist shot at 8:12. Then, with 6:28 left, Foerster found a loose puck under Annunen’s pads and quickly slammed it into the net.
With their goalie pulled, Philadelphia controlled the play in the final minute, but they couldn’t score the tying goal.
Makar put Colorado ahead 1-0 midway through the second period. Nathan MacKinnon made a nice move along the left boards and passed to Makar, who was wide open in the slot. Makar skated in and beat Kolosov with a wrist shot.
Less than a minute later, Makar seemed to score again, but the goal was waved off for goalie interference.
Soon after, on the power play, Makar took a shot from the blue line that went through traffic and beat Kolosov for a 2-0 lead.
This was Makar’s first multi-goal game of the 2024-25 season, and his 10th career multi-goal game.
Mittelstadt made it 3-0 with 11:26 left in the third period, scoring off a rebound from a shot by Rantanen.
During the first period, referee Mitch Dunning had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher after a collision with Colorado’s Josh Manson. The NHL later confirmed that Dunning was able to move all of his limbs and showed normal neurological signs.
