Mikko Rantanen has 3-point night in Avalanche 6-5 victory over Calgary Flames

Six different goal scorers contributed to the Avalanche's win — and for one, it was his first of the season.

Tomas Tatar scored his first goal of the season and Mikko Rantanen broke his scoring drought in the Avalanche's 6-5 win over the Calgary Flames. 

Six different goal scorers contributed to the scoresheet and five players had multi-point games. But the game was far from perfect as the Avs were down by two going into the third period. The team managed to stay focused to earn the two points. 

"It's always a little frustrating, but you have to kind of check yourself and it's better than being hemmed in and not doing anything," Nathan MacKinnon said. "We all felt like after the second, had weared them down a little bit regardless of what the score was. They had five D the whole game. We felt like we were getting to them and I think we were right — they looked a little tired in the third.”

Tatar was finally rewarded for his hard work with the first goal for the Avalanche at 1:46 in the first period. 

"I mean he's had a lot of chances, and just unable to finish it off. And I'm really happy for him that he got that and hopefully that gives him a little life," head coach Jared Bednar said. "We know he has the ability to be able to chip in offensively more than he has. He understands that — hopefully that gives him a little bit of life just like the rest of our team."

Cale Makar scored on a tic-tac-toe play from MacKinnon and Rantanen 1:43 into the second on a power play to put the Avalanche up by one. 

Ben Meyers, who was recalled before the game, also scored in the middle frame but Calgary capitalized on puck-handling mistakes and breakdowns for four goals in the period. 

"I think for me, obviously a couple of mishaps and they're gonna happen. You have to manage that," Makar said. "Obviously you don't want them to be four or five like I had tonight, but at the same time, move on and focus on the group and the resilience we showed tonight.

"We've shown glimpses of it throughout the year. I think we've showed the full 60 at times, but to have that resilience, especially going into the third period, two goals down, knowing that it's going to be a grind, and everybody's staying committed to that grind and just trying to score every shift shows a lot of growth, that's for sure."

Ivan Prosvetov replaced Alexandar Georgiev for the third period and made 11 saves, not allowing Calgary to score.

Colton assisted on Tatar's goal and then got his own at 8:40 in the third off a Josh Manson shot rebound. He played a physical game which helped get the team involved. 

"We just wanted to come out in the first five minutes and play hard and play physical — especially in these last couple of games I think we've been playing not as physical as we wanted to ...," Colton said. 

Bednar said physicality has to be part of his team's game. It's important to have that passion and intensity in order to elevate their play. 

"It can't be easy for other teams to break out, to go through the neutral zone, to play in our offensive zone. There has to be a level of aggression and physicality to the game," Bednar said. "Everyone else is playing our guys hard — we have to play the opponent hard. Colton, huge night, right? And he starts it out right away, that line, they got the start. They get it in — big hit, clean hit — we draw power play immediately. It gives our team life. And then they score two big goals. Tatar's one was passed from Colton and then Colton gets his own later. That's the type of mentality that line especially has to have."

Rantanen tipped in the game-tying goal at 13:31 in the third period to break his nine-game goal scoring drought. After the game, he mentioned a source of his motivation. 

“There’s actually one thing where I got a lot of extra energy,” Rantanen said. “One of our Finnish NHL players’ dad was talking s--- about me in the media, that I didn’t train last summer like I used to do. He was just making things up so I think that was for him. If you talk s--- it’s going to come back at you.”

It is believed he was referring to comments Artturi Lehkonen's father, Ismo Lehkonen — a former coach — made to a Finnish publication. 

MacKinnon notched the game-winner on a breakaway with four and a half minutes left in the game. 

The elite center's two points on the night extended his point streak to 12 games. Only two other players in the League have longer runs — William Nylander (17) and Artemi Panarin (15). He also kept his home-scoring steak going which is now at 14. 

Makar recorded his 73rd career goal, passing Sandis Ozolinsh to move into the second-place spot on the franchise's list of goals by a defenseman. He trails the top spot by two goals held by Tyson Barrie. 

Colorado is back at Ball Arena to face former Av Erik Johnson and the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.