The Calgary Flames racked up 33 minutes in penalties in Wednesday's loss to the Colorado Avalanche and lost leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau in the third period to a game misconduct.

The Flames handed the Avalanche a total of seven power plays, while Gaudreau was given a misconduct for yelling at the referee after being called for embellishment, which offset Blake Comeau's penalty for high-sticking the Flames forward.

Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan was also a part of the action, picking up a bench minor in the second period for his comments towards an official. After the game, Gulutzan was critical of himself but said he was "dumbfounded" at the embellishment call on Gaudreau.

After cooling down from the contest, Gulutzan said Thursday that the Flames can grow from the 5-2 loss, but cautioned there's a fine between frustration and anger.

“I don’t think we do park (the emotion). I think we harness it, and we take it moving forward,” Gulutzan told the Calgary Sun. “When you get into these situations like this, where you feel that it was biased and you were gypped and you didn’t react the right way; you have to learn from it but you have to harness that anger and you have to get going here.

“You know, I liked the way our guys played in the third. They were an angry group … I’m not saying you can play angry because frustration and anger are pretty closely intertwined, but this has to unite us and galvanize us as we head into our last 17 games.”

The Flames lost two straight games, giving up a total of 13 power plays in the process.

“The past two games, way too many penalties,” Flames captain Mark Giordano said after the loss to the Avalanche. “It feels a lot like the start of the year, where we were a bit undisciplined at the start and taking way too many penalties. It not only wears on guys who play special teams, but it’s tough on guys who don’t play special teams because they don’t get out there enough and they don’t get into a rhythm and that’s another big part of it.

“So we’ve gotta stop taking penalties.”

The Flames enter Friday's contest against the New York Rangers one point back of the Anaheim Ducks for the final wild-card spot. However, the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues both sit ahead of the Flames in the log-jammed Western Conference playoff race.