CALGARY — The Calgary Flames won their season opener for the first time in well over a decade with a 5-3 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
The Flames halted the NHL's longest active winless streak in openers — 0-10-2 after their last win in 2009 — by scoring twice in the second and third periods. "I saw a random stat that it's been awhile since the Flames won a season opener, so I'm happy we can get that off our backs and we can just carry on another 81 games here," new Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar said.
Dillon Dube scored short-handed and defenceman Rasmus Andersson scored on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box in the middle period.
Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli contributed power-play goals in the third and Brett Ritchie also scored for Calgary. Weegar joined Calgary's other off-season acquisitions Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Kevin Rooney in their regular-season debuts for the Flames.