It didn't take long for the Avalanche to put their exasperating 3-2 overtime loss to Calgary on Saturday behind them. Good thing, because they leave Monday to open a four-game road trip that begins Tuesday against the New York Rangers.

“It’s such a long year, you can’t dwell on wins or losses,” said Nathan MacKinnon, who matched the franchise record for the longest season-opening goal streak -- five games -- by scoring 11 seconds into the first period. The record was set in 1992-93 by the Quebec Nordiques' Mats Sundin.

“This is a big road trip for us,” MacKinnon said. “If we can have a good record on this one, we’ll be in great shape coming back home.”

Coach Jared Bednar supervised a 45-minute practice Sunday after the usual team meeting to watch tape and discuss the mistakes and lackluster effort that allowed the Flames to dominate play after the Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first period.

“The coaches met with the players this morning and went over some things that were pretty obvious after looking at it on video on why we weren’t successful,” he said. “We went out and worked on some D-zone coverage today and getting quick to contact and making sure we got support around the puck. I thought our intensity level was really good.

“We’re all aware, coaches and players, that that wasn’t our best game and that when teams push we have to push back.”

Calgary outshot Colorado 31-9 after the first period.

The Avalanche (3-1-1) gained a valuable point in the standings by getting to overtime, and they easily could have lost in regulation except that goalie Semyon Varlamov (38 saves) wouldn’t allow it.

“We had a tough second and third (periods), but that’s going to happen over the course of the season. We’ve just got to limit them,” MacKinnon said. “We know how to play well, it’s not like it’s a secret in the locker room. We just have to get back to that.”

MacKinnon’s goal was the fastest to start a game for the Avalanche since Antti Laaksonen set the franchise record 8 seconds in against Columbus on Feb. 10, 2006

Bednar on the upcoming trip: “Four games, good teams, some of those teams are playing real good right now. It will be a good challenge for us. I’m excited to get back out on the road, actually, see what our team’s got. Just came off a short road trip, playing really well in one game, so hopefully we can repeat that performance.”

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Varlamov will start Tuesday against the Rangers. He's been terrific so far with a 3-0-1 record, 1.75 goals-against average and .946 save percentage. He’s gone 6-3-0 in nine career games against the Blueshirts with a 3.07 GAG and .901 save percentage.

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Forward Sven Andrighetto (leg) practiced again while wearing a non-contact jersey and could join the team at some point on the trip.

The Avalanche recalled forward Sheldon Dries from the AHL Colorado Eagles.

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Defenseman Conor Timmins, the Avalanche’s second-round pick (No.32) in the 2017 NHL draft, has left for his home Ontario as he continues to deal with concussion symptoms.

“He’s just not progressing as much as we would like, so we let him go home for a little while to spend some time and continue to rehab, and then we’ll bring him back here,” Bednar said. “A setback, I don’t know, we want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to help him get better.

“He’s been here for a long time, he’s not skating with the team every day. I think getting home to see his family and sort of get rejuvenated … then we’ll bring him back and see if that can help him along a little bit.”



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