Artturi Lehkonen and Mikko Rantanen scored two goals each to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.
Nathan McKinnon had a pair of assists for Colorado (23-17-3) to extend their point streak to six games.
With their third straight win, the Avs climbed to within two points of the Flames, who hold the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Colorado holds three games in hand.
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Tyler Toffoli scored the only goal for Calgary (21-16-9), which suffered back-to-back losses.
Alexander Georgiev made 34 stops to earn the win and improve to 17–11–3.
Jacob Markstrom had 27 saves for Calgary. His record drops to 13–12–5.
The Avalanche quickly took control of the game, taking a 3–0 lead after the opening 20 minutes.
Troubles for the home team began 6:17 into the first period, when a defensive field turnover led to JT Comper setting up Rantanen for a one-timer that went inside the goalposts.
Another miscue on the part of the visitors resulted in the second goal. An errant pass after winning the offensive zone faceoff resulted in a 2-on-1 rush for Colorado in which McKinnon set up Lehkonen at 11:01.
Less than two minutes later, Lehkonen scored his second and fifth goals of the night in his last three games. Rantanen’s point whistled around the Calgary net, but the rebound off the end boards went off the other side and Lehkonen lofted it over Markstrom as he slid.
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After a scoreless second period, the Flames broke up Georgiev’s shutout bid on the power play with 2:27 left in the third. Toffoli sent a shot inside the goalpost, his 16th of the season.
Calgary had few chances to draw. Blake Coleman was denied a few shots on a loose puck halfway through the third.
On his next shift, Coleman had another dangerous chance as he slashed his way through the AVS defense and into the goal, but was thwarted once again by Georgiev.
Rantanen put the game away with an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining.
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