CALGARY, Alberta — Jared Bednar’s choice of goaltender the last three games was never meant to stir speculation about a competition, nor was it a show of distrust in his starter.

A little rest can go a long ways, and Alexandar Georgiev showed why Wednesday night. Back in net for the first time in a week, he saved 34 shots, kept the Flames scoreless through two periods and survived a late barrage in the Avalanche’s win.

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Missing three top defensemen to injury, the latest of whom was Calgary hometown kid Cale Makar, Georgiev’s gutsy effort helped Colorado (23-17-3) hold a 3-0 lead acquired in the first period. The Avs were outshot 23-16 after first intermission, but the strong starts are refreshing. After losing seven of eight games, they have suddenly jumped to 7-0, 5-0 and 3-0 leads on their last three opponents.

“Honestly, you kind of try to forget (the lead) right away because it’s such a long game,” Georgiev said. “So I didn’t really pay attention to the score. But I think for the team, it helps to know you have that cushion.”

Artturi Lehkonen scored twice to take over as the team’s second-leading scorer (12 goals), and Mikko Rantanen added two to become the fastest player to 30 goals (then 31) in a season in franchise history. He beat Joe Sakic’s record by one game with an early one-timer, confidently calling for the pass from J.T. Compher.

“I don’t know. (Sakic) still has two Cups,” Rantanen said when asked about one-upping the franchise legend. “That’s the difference.”

But clearly even after the recent skid, dreams of a second Cup haven’t escaped this Avalanche team: victory song “Heat Waves” returned to the dressing room after the win, beckoning Colorado toward the playoffs with its lyrics about “late nights in the middle of June.”

Rantanen, Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon all had two points by first intermission. MacKinnon facilitated the second goal in a fascinating sequence. Evan Rodrigues lost a defensive-zone faceoff, but when Calgary tapped the puck back out toward the point, nobody was around to receive it. MacKinnon won the race to it and launched a 2-on-1 breakout. He slithered around Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev and passed across the crease to an inbound Lehkonen at the last second.

As Lehkonen’s stick touched the puck through Jacob Markstrom’s legs, he ran into the short-side post and tipped the opposite side of the net slightly off the ground. As that happened, the puck creeped along the line and under the elevated net, so it looked as though it had never crossed. MacKinnon spotted it instantly and gestured that it was a goal.

That proved to be the game-winner as Georgiev held firm. Even after enduring Colorado’s long slump, his even-strength save percentage is .931. He stopped all 31 even strength shots faced in Calgary, including a clutch third-period save against Blake Coleman’s partial breakaway shortly after Calgary had gotten on the board with a power play goal. That would have made it 3-2 against an Avalanche team that had lost some of its aggressive steam by then.

“We gave up some scoring chances against; he made big saves,” coach Jared Bednar said. “Looked sharp early.”

Starting backup Pavel Francouz three consecutive games was a designed break for Georgiev, who told The Post that the break was more of a mental refresher than a physical rest. “There was a lot of practice time,” he said.

The Flames outshot the Avs 13-3 in the third period before Rantanen’s second goal, a late technicality. He had a breakaway on an empty net but got slashed from behind, the type of violation that would ordinarily warrant a penalty shot — if a goalie was in net. Since there wasn’t, Rantanen was awarded his 31st goal. He thinks it’s his first-ever goal to never actually go in the net.

“I know the rule,” he said. “(The referee) was going to call a penalty. I was like, ‘He thinks that I would have not scored that?’ I don’t know. It was funny that he was going to give a penalty.”