Good & Bad: Kelly Scores 2, Depth Leads Avalanche in Calgary

When the top guys aren’t producing, the depth steps in to lead the way. That’s how winning teams are built. It’s how the Avalanche are now, but it wasn’t the case until recently.

Parker Kelly had two goals, and Ryan Lindgren got his first since being acquired by the Avalanche, who defeated the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Friday to improve to 7-0-1 in their last eight games.

Valeri Nichushkin scored an empty-net goal to seal the win.

Colorado led 1-0 after the first and 2-0 after the second period. The top line had just two shots on goal through 40 minutes and finished without a point. The Flames, however, could only muster five shots through the first 35 minutes.

After Kelly made it 2-0 late in the second, the home team woke up and started to take control. They had five shots in the final four minutes of the period before putting 14 on Wedgewood in the third.

Wedgewood finished with 22 saves.

Blake Coleman scored to cut Colorado’s lead down to 2-1 as the ice completely tilted in his team’s favor. In response, Colton, who finished with two assists, did an excellent job forcing a turnover less than three minutes later. He set up Kelly for another tally to regain the Avs’ two-goal lead.

It’s the first two-goal game for Kelly since his rookie season in 2022.

The Flames wouldn’t go away. They continued to press and scored off a fortunate bounce. The puck deflected off Huberdeau and up into the air before coming down, hitting Wedgewood and going in. Lindgren collided with Wedgewood just as the puck went in. Calgary forced the pressure in front of the goal and was rewarded.

Nichushkin ended things shortly after Flames coach Ryan Huska pulled goalie Dustin Wolf for the extra attacker. Wolf made 24 saves.

For the Avs, Wedgewood faced 19 shots in the final 25 minutes of regulation and stopped 17 of them.

Colorado also lost defenseman Josh Manson to an upper-body injury. He left in the first period before returning to start the second. Manson played just five shifts in that period before his night came to an end. He finished the game with 8:52 in ice time and recorded three shots and three hits.

Good: Depth Works Hard, Depth Gets Rewarded

If you were worried about Joel Kiviranta and Kelly as the third and fourth left-wing options, then worry no more. Kiviranta has stepped up his game a lot in recent weeks, especially since getting paired with Charlie Coyle and Ross Colton.

But Kelly has fit much better on the wing than he did at center. And I say that as someone who liked his game down the middle, too.

This might be a crazy trip down memory lane, but Kelly reminds me of T.J. Galiardi during the 2010 postseason against the San Jose Sharks. He’s not the biggest body, and he’s not the strongest guy, but he’ll skate through a wall to complete a forecheck.

He’s certainly for the fearless trait.

More recently, it’s a similar role to what Nicolas Aube-Kubel played in 2022, although Aube-Kubel had shinier offensive numbers.

Kelly was rewarded for an aggressive attack, picking it away from Jonathan Huberdeau before skating in and putting it past Wolf.

Bad: Cale Makar Flubs a Penalty Shot

It would probably make more sense to further highlight the tough game the top-six had, but I wanted to quickly touch on this instead.

Sure, MacKinnon didn’t produce any points in Calgary or Minnesota, but he was averaging five points in every two games during the homestand.

As for Makar, he seemed to have taken a page out of Martin Necas and MacKinnon’s books from the shootout at Minnesota by trying too hard to make a move on the goalie. Like the two forwards, Makar has an incredible shot. I said it last game an I’ll say it again: I’m not sure how many of these they’ll have the rest of the way but keeping it simple needs to be the gameplan.

Each of these guys can skate in, pick a corner, and fire it on goal. They’ll likely score more by doing that than whatever they’ve tried this week.