Avalanche win 5th in 6 games, extend Flames' skid to 5

Andre Burakovsky scored twice and goalie Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves in his return from injury as the visiting Colorado Avalanche beat the struggling Calgary Flames 3-2 Tuesday night. Grubauer was back in action after missing five games with a lower-body injury for the Avalanche, who have won five of their last six games.

Burakovsky opened the scoring 3:21 into the clash when he joined a rush up the ice, received a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and roofed a shot. It's the seventh consecutive game in which the Flames have surrendered the first goal.

Burakovsky's second of the game came with 95 seconds remaining in the frame. After his team won a face-off in the Calgary zone, Burakovsky moved below the right face-off dot and wired a top-shelf shot for his 10th goal of the season. Burakovsky finished with 12 goals in each of the past three seasons. Vladislav Kamenev's first goal of the season came 13:15 into the second period made it 3-0. Taking advantage of a poorly executed Flames line change, Kamenev was part of an odd-man rush that ended when he was set up by J.T. Compher for a tap-in goal.

MacKinnon collected a pair of assists, while rookie Cale Makar added a helper, giving him 13 points in November, the most by a rookie defenseman since Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom had 17 in 1991. Derek Ryan's goal with 2:19 left in the second period not only put the Flames on the board but also snapped his team's goal-scoring drought. Milan Lucic won a board battle and moved the puck to Ryan, who snapped home a shot from inside the left dot. Calgary went 167:44 without scoring a goal.

Then Andrew Mangiapane made it a one-goal game with 4:16 left in regulation, but it wasn't enough for the Flames who have lost five straight games. David Rittich made 23 saves for Calgary, which has surrendered the game's first goal in 16 of 24 games this season and fallen behind by a 2-0 score in all five loses during this skid.