Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Jaden Schwartz scored twice as the Avalanche win 7-3, and the Flames fall to 0-4.
The strongest argument for Calgary before Thursday night was the schedule.
The Flames were rested and at home. Colorado had played in Winnipeg the night before, travelled to Calgary and turned to its backup goalie. If there was going to be a night when the gap between these teams shrank, the circumstances appeared capable of creating it.
They did for one period.
Then the Avalanche scored three times in 4:54, Cale Makar turned his Calgary homecoming into a three-point night and Colorado beat the Flames 7-3 at the Saddledome.
The back-to-back did not expose the favorite.
It exposed how far Calgary still has to go.
Calgary Had the First Period
The final score makes the game look inevitable.
It was not inevitable early.
Calgary generated enough chances in the opening period to test exactly what Colorado’s second night should have looked like. Scott Wedgewood had to stop Mikael Backlund twice from the doorstep in the opening minutes, then denied Joel Farabee on a breakaway.
Devon Toews finally gave Colorado the lead at 15:54 by redirecting a Makar pass at the net. Adam Klapka answered less than two minutes later, walking around Josh Manson before beating Wedgewood to make it 1-1.
Calgary had energy. The crowd had a game. The travel argument still looked relevant.
Then Colorado found the part of the ice Calgary could not protect.
Three Goals Broke It
The game changed in less than five minutes.
Toews scored his second at 6:45 of the second period, sending a wrist shot through traffic from above the left circle. Makar followed at 9:16, finishing off the rush from the right side.
Nathan MacKinnon made it 4-1 at 11:39.
That goal came after Colorado held the offensive zone for 1:44. Calgary had multiple opportunities to end the possession and never did. MacKinnon eventually stepped into a one-timer from the high slot and turned sustained pressure into the third Avalanche goal in 4:54.
That sequence captured the actual mismatch better than the final score.
The Flames did not lose because Colorado had one superstar shift. They lost because one failed exit became another possession, then another, until the structure broke.
Makar Owned the Homecoming
Makar grew up in Calgary.
He treated Thursday like a homecoming.
His first assist created Toews’ opening goal. His first goal gave Colorado breathing room in the second. His second, a one-timer from high in the left circle at 5:35 of the third, made it 5-1.
Two goals. One assist. Three points.
MacKinnon matched him with a goal and two assists, giving Colorado six combined points from the two players every opponent already knows it has to stop.
That is the larger problem when playing the Avalanche. Surviving MacKinnon does not eliminate Makar. Surviving Makar does not guarantee the next line disappears.
Calgary learned that immediately afterward.
The Depth Joined In
Jaden Schwartz scored 59 seconds after Makar’s second goal, taking a pass from T.J. Hughes and finishing from the slot for a 6-1 lead.
The assist was Hughes’ first NHL point.
Schwartz eventually scored again at 9:41 when his pass deflected off Jake Middleton’s skate and past Devin Cooley. He finished with two goals after scoring his first as an Avalanche the previous night in Winnipeg.
Toews had two goals. Schwartz had two. Makar had two.
The player Colorado relies on most heavily to score, MacKinnon, only needed one.
That is a much more difficult offensive profile to manage than simply asking whether a tired MacKinnon line can survive the second half of a back-to-back.
Wedgewood Removed the Goalie Question
The other part of the pregame uncertainty came in net.
Colorado gave Wedgewood his first start of the season after Mackenzie Blackwood played Wednesday in Winnipeg. It was also Wedgewood’s 200th NHL game.
Calgary gave him chances early enough to make that rotation matter.
He stopped them.
Wedgewood finished with 26 saves on 29 shots. His work in the first period prevented Calgary from turning a strong opening push into the kind of two-goal lead that might have made Colorado’s schedule relevant later.
By the time the Flames finally got additional goals from Backlund and Kevin Bahl in the third, Colorado already led 6-1.
The backup did not merely survive the assignment.
He gave the Avalanche enough stability to wait for their talent to take over.
Calgary Is Now 0-4
The Flames have reached the point where the record is starting to demand context.
They are 0-4-0.
They have been outscored 23-6.
That does not mean four games define an 82-game season. It does mean the losses are no longer all describing different problems.
Calgary showed enough pace to compete with Colorado early. It created legitimate first-period chances. Klapka scored a high-skill goal. Backlund and Bahl added third-period offense.
The problem was sustaining any of it once Colorado increased the pressure.
That has become the early warning sign. The Flames can produce stretches that look competitive. They have not yet shown they can connect enough of those stretches to control a full game.
The Rest Advantage Disappeared
Calgary’s most persuasive pregame case had very little to do with being the better hockey team.
It was about circumstances.
The Flames were at home and rested. Colorado had just played a high-pressure game in Winnipeg, lost 3-2 late and then travelled for the second half of a back-to-back.
That was enough to create an argument that the expected gap between the teams might be too large for one night.
The opposite happened.
Colorado played with more structure as the game went on. Calgary became less capable of defending the next wave. The schedule disadvantage that was supposed to pull the Avalanche toward the Flames never became visible once the second period began.
Sometimes an expectation is wrong because the underdog was underestimated.
This one was wrong because the favorite had more margin than the schedule could erase.
Colorado Answered Winnipeg Fast
The result also changes how Wednesday’s loss should be read.
Winnipeg held Colorado to two goals despite facing 34 shots and survived on Kyle Connor’s winner with one minute left. That result showed the Avalanche could generate pressure without automatically converting it into offense.
Calgary saw the correction immediately.
The Avalanche scored seven times on 30 shots Thursday. Makar, MacKinnon, Toews and Schwartz all produced multi-point games. The second night of a back-to-back became their highest-scoring performance since the 8-3 opening-night win against Minnesota.
Colorado is now 3-1-0.
More importantly, the first loss did not linger long enough to become a trend.
The Flames Still Cannot Solve Colorado
Thursday also extended a matchup that has become increasingly one-sided.
Colorado has now earned at least one point in 12 consecutive games against Calgary dating to January 18, 2023.
The Avalanche are 11-0-1 in those games.
That history was not the reason Colorado won Thursday. The second-period pressure, the finish from its defensemen and Wedgewood’s early saves were.
The streak does show that Calgary’s difficulty with this matchup is no longer confined to one bad opening week.
The Flames needed the schedule to make Colorado look ordinary.
Instead, Colorado looked even deeper.
The Expectation Gap Got Wider
Calgary entered the night as a large home underdog because almost every roster-level comparison favored Colorado.
The counterargument was that one-game conditions can matter more than season-long talent. Rest, travel and goaltending rotation created a plausible route to something much closer.
For 20 minutes, it was closer.
Then Colorado demonstrated why it carried the larger expectation in the first place.
The Avalanche could lose the territorial battle early, rotate goalies, play for the second straight night and still produce enough elite skill and depth to score seven.
Calgary’s home ice did not shrink that gap.
It gave the Flames a better view of it.
Colorado returns home to face the Maple Leafs on Saturday. Calgary stays home for the Ducks.
One team gets to test whether its bounce-back travels into another difficult matchup.
The other needs its first win before four losses start turning into something heavier.
Sources
NHL, October 8-9, 2026 — Avalanche-Flames game recap and official box score | Colorado Avalanche, October 9, 2026 — 7-3 road win recap | Calgary Flames, October 9, 2026 — Flames-Avalanche recap | Reuters, October 9, 2026 — Cale Makar leads Avalanche past Flames | Winners & Whiners, October 8, 2026 — pregame matchup and expectation framing