Flames’ barrage levels Blue Jackets

In Columbus the carnival came to town and set up a a few marksmanship stands.

The Calgary Flames launched 62 shots on goal on Wednesday and defeated the Blue Jackets, 6-0.

“If you’re taking that many shots, which doesn’t happen that very often, there was a lot of high quality in them tonight,” Flames head coach Darryl Sutter said. “I think that we had in the 40s in Edmonton a couple of games ago (47 in a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday).

“We probably had as many good opportunities and just didn’t score, so we just stay the course with how we have to play.”

Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves to get the shutout victory.

“Obviously, that’s 60 minutes of really well-played hockey,” Markstrom said. “We didn’t really give up pretty much anything at all in the third when we’re up a couple of goals.

“Thirty seconds into the third we scored, and then [with less than] a minute left in the second we scored. And we had a huge kill when I took a penalty. We had some key blocks there, and I think that set the standard for our game.”

Matthew Tkachuk scored twice for the Flames.

Mikael Backlund scored in the first period to give Calgary a 1-0 lead.

The Blue Jackets dropped to 18-21-1.

“It just wasn’t a good game,” Columbus head coach Brad Larsen said. “It’s not a talent disparity. You’ve got to push yourself into these games. You had to be ready to compete tonight against a big hockey team. We didn’t respond. We did not get into it as hard or heavy as we needed to.

“You don’t have to dissect this. They were the better team. They had the puck all night. We were not nearly good enough.”

Andrew Mangiapane and Tkachuk struck for goals in the middle frame for a 3-0 lead.

The Flames improved to 20-12-6.

“I don’t think we had much going tonight, even when it was 1-0,” the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski said. “From the beginning of the game we didn’t create much, didn’t have much jump.”

The Flames scored three times in the third period, Elias Lindholm, Erik Gudbranson, and Tkachuk’s second of the game rounded out the Calgary barrage.

“I scored against Calgary. I was playing for [the] Ottawa [Senators],” Gudbranson, said. “I have so few of them that, yeah, I do remember. It’s not my job, but if you can chip in that way it’s always nice.”

Elvis Merzlikins made 56 saves in the carnival’s arcade.