The Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames in a back-to-back game for both teams.
Colorado Avalanche center Ryan Johansen had the highlight goal of the game in the 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night at Ball Arena.
The 31-year-old forward — who had not scored in the last three games — capitalized on a turnover for a breakaway. He slid the puck in a wraparound on his backhand past Flames netminder Dan Vladar to put the Avs up 2-0 at 9:50 in the middle frame.
"I felt like it was an impossible angle to score from on my backhand so the next best thing would be a wraparound and it worked out, so it's nice.
"It's a great feeling. There's not a better feeling in the world than scoring a goal in the NHL. It never gets old ... hopefully I can do it a little more," Johansen said after the win.
Head coach Jared Bednar was impressed with his second-line center's skating and said he played an overall good game.
"Wrapping around on your backhand is not an easy play. There's a subtle move to get their goalie to bite to the strong-side post before he does, it's not easy to do," Bednar said. "That was a big goal for us and it's a highly-skilled play as well. That's some of the things that he can do. And he's just chipping away slowly but surely but I like the way he skated tonight."
Jonathan Drouin wristed a pass from Mikko Rantanen in the slot past Vladar to put the Avs on the board first 6:31 into the game.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the third goal for the Avalanche but said his team looked tired and he didn't feel it was a good game.
"I thought both teams were pretty bad tonight, honestly. Provy (Prosvetov) played awesome, made some big saves," MacKinnon said.
Colorado played Friday night — as did Calgary — which showed in the reduced energy levels on the ice.
"If you're ever going to get a back-to-back it's nice that both teams are not playing on full tanks, but I thought overall team effort was pretty good," Bednar said.
MacKinnon said the team's "execution was off" but is looking ahead at a big game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.
Cale Makar had an assist on MacKinnon's goal which tied John-Michael Liles for the No. 2 spot on the franchise's most points by a defenseman list. The 24-year-old Norris Trophy-winner achieved numerous other milestones in the game as well.
Valeri Nichushkin ended his consecutive goal-per-game streak but continued his point-per-game streak to seven.