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(Sports Network) - Wojtek Wolski scored the game-winner early in the third period, as the red-hot Colorado Avalanche scored three unanswered goals en route to a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames in a Northwest Division showdown at Pengrowth Saddledome.
David Koci and David Jones each added a goal for the Avs, who are off to their best start in franchise history with a 10-1-2 mark. Craig Anderson, who started his 13th consecutive game to begin the season, bounced back from a shaky start to stop 30-of-32 shots in the victory.
Colorado set a club record with its 10th win in October. It has won four in a row and eight of nine.
"Tonight's game, it could have been easy for our guys to say, you know what we'll get you next time. You find ways to win sometimes, even when it's not pretty and we did that tonight," Colorado head coach Joe Sacco said. "Craig (Anderson) came up big in the second and third period for us."
Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen lit the lamp for the Flames, who suffered their first defeat within the division this season. Miikka Kiprusoff turned aside 11-of-14 shots for Calgary, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.
"We had a good start to the game, and then we backed off and allowed them to carry the play," Calgary head coach Brent Sutter said. "We didn't really do enough to score here tonight. We had a lot of outside shots, and they blocked a lot of shots, give them credit."
With the score tied at 2-2, Wolski lit the lamp at the 5:31 mark of the third to give Colorado a one-goal margin. Paul Stastny entered the Calgary zone with the disc before dumping off a pass to a trailing Wolski, who split a pair of defenders at the right circle and fired a wrister past Kiprusoff.
Anderson stopped 12 shots in the third frame to secure the victory for the Avalanche.
The Flames came out of the gates on fire, scoring a pair of goals in the first 1:10 of the contest. Iginla's wrister from the point beat Anderson just 55 seconds in. Jokinen's wrap-around goal just 15 ticks later made it 2-0 in favor of Calgary.
Koci's one-timer at the 7:53 mark found the back of the net to cut the deficit in half. Jones' score with 3:22 remaining in the first stanza tied things up.
Anderson made 12 saves and Kiprusoff stopped four shots during a scoreless second.
Game Notes
Avs backup goalie Peter Budaj is out with the H1N1 flu...Calgary won all three of its home games versus Colorado last year and took four of six from the club overall in 2008-09. The Avs snapped a four-game slide at Pengrowth Saddledome...Colorado travels to San Jose on Friday, while Calgary hosts Detroit on Saturday...Calgary was 9-0 over the past five seasons when it returns to the ice following three days between games.
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