Flames beat Avalanche, move into eighth-place tie

DENVER — Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 35 shots for the Calgary Flames, who defeated Colorado, 2-1, Friday night and moved into a points tie with the eighth-place Avalanche in the Western Conference playoff race.

Nigel Dawes and Rene Bourque scored for the Flames, who won their third straight.

Calgary has made up ground in a hurry. The Flames trailed Colorado by nine points heading into a game against the Avalanche on March 17. Now the teams are tied with 89 points. The Avalanche has five games left, compared to four for Calgary, and owns the tiebreaker based on one more win than the Flames.

Colorado, which got a third-period goal from T.J. Galiardi, is 1-6-1 in its last eight games.

In its biggest game of the season, the Avalanche looked listless for much of the game. The packed crowd kept waiting for the team to break out. The offense came to life when Galiardi punched a shot past Kiprusoff to cut the deficit to 2-1.

—Associated Press