Makar scores 2, Avalanche hold off Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Cale Makar scored two goals, and the Colorado Avalanche hung on for a 3-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Monday.

Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and an assist for Colorado (10-9-0). Justus Annunen made 24 saves.

"I felt like we were offensively rolling," Makar said. "When the forwards are moving around it's fun for us as [defensemen]. We can kind of move up top and create space. So yeah, I thought we were working out well."

Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster scored in the third period for Philadelphia (8-9-2), which had its three-game winning streak ended. Aleksei Kolosov made 26 saves.

"I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit," Tippett said. "They're a quick team and they transition fast. I think we gave them a little more than we should have and found ourselves behind."

Makar put the Avalanche ahead 1-0 at 8:30 of the second period with a shot from between the top of the face-off circles.

Colorado scored with 9:15 remaining in the second, with Makar putting the puck past Kolosov from almost the same spot as his first goal, but the goal was overturned after Philadelphia successfully challenged for goalie interference.

Makar gave Colorado a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal at 15:08 when his shot from the center of the offensive zone deflected off Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler and past Kolosov.

"He got two, I'm not sure about the third one that was disallowed," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "He got into some good areas on some nice plays from some other players on our team, [Nathan MacKinnon] fed across on the one right into the slot. Just picked the right spots, I felt like tonight, to get up in the rush and join, especially on the entries into the [offensive] zone. In the [offensive] zone play he was pretty active. He found himself in the slot two or three times, all alone, and he didn't make any mistakes on those."

Flyers forward Travis Konecny shouldered the blame for Makar's first goal.

"Bad read, I'm puck-watching," he said. "And it's frustrating to look at the end of the game and it's a one-goal game."

Mittelstadt made it 3-0 at 8:34 of the third period, scoring off the rebound of a Jonathan Drouin shot.

Tippett made it 3-1 with a shot from the high slot at 11:48. Konecny assisted on the play to extend his point streak to seven games (six goals, seven assists).

Foerster knocked in a loose puck behind Annunen to make it 3-2 at 13:32.

"We put ourselves in a chance to win the game and that's all you can ask," Konecny said. "It didn't play out the way we wanted it to maybe the first half of the game, but we stuck with it. We've been doing the right things and starting to get the results. Tonight we didn't get it."

NOTES: The game was played with one referee and two linespeople after referee Mitch Dunning was injured in a collision with Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson with 13:37 remaining in the first period. Dunning was taken to an area hospital but had feeling in all his extremities and neurological testing was positive. ... Flyers defenseman Erik Johnson was honored before the game for playing his 1,000th NHL game against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Johnson played 13 of his 17 seasons for the Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2022. ... It was Makar's 10th NHL multigoal game. ... Flyers defenseman Helge Grans had an assist on Foerster's goal for his first NHL point in his first game. He had been recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Monday. ... Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim had an assist on Tippett's goal to give him six points (two goals, four assists) during a three-game point streak. ... Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen had two assists. He has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past five games.