In Calgary, the Darryl Sutter era showed dividends on the ice on Saturday night, The Flames were than a flickering light in a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Sean Monahan scored twice in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Those two strikes included his 200th NHL goal.
“I think [our confidence] is way up,” Monahan said. “We’re a lot sharper right now. We’re playing together. When you’re playing faster and moving your feet it’s going to generate a lot more looks, and that’s what we’re getting right now.”
Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves in the win.
“You’ve got to play with a little bit of swagger and a little bit of confidence when you play this game against these teams,” the Flames’ Andrew Mangiapane said. “We have to go into every game with the mentality that we’re going to come away with the two points. It’s just the last two games here, but we have to keep building on it and not get too high or not get too low. You’ve got to keep building on the wins.”
Jeff Petry scored in the second period for the Canadiens.
“We know we can be a good team,” Montreal’s Nick Suzuki said. “These points are going to matter a ton coming down the stretch. We’re over the halfway mark, so we need to pick up points. We need wins. It’s got to come fast for us. We need to start building our game. Just have to take it to the next step.”
Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames who had a 3-0 lead in the middle frame.
“I think that having a good forecheck and being on pucks or creating turnovers, whether you go right out like I did to ‘Backs’ or go to the D-man and they put pucks to the net and funnel, it’s just playing simple and being predictable, and I think that works for us,” Mangiapane said.
Carey Price made 33 saves in the loss.
They want to come out and set the tone and get in on the forecheck,” Petry said. “We have to take a page from them. Early on, we weren’t putting pucks in and managing the puck well and it gave them a lot of time in the offensive zone. I think if we can learn anything, we’ve got to make sure we control the puck and make smart decisions early on.”
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