In Calgary, the Flames clinched the Pacific Division title on Thursday night with a three-goal third period, and a 4-2 win over the slumping Dallas Stars.
Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves in the Flames win.
Matthew Tkachuk picked up his 40th goal of the season for the Flames.
“We realize that home ice is very important, and to get as many games at home, and to get the majority of the games in a series in your own building, that’s huge for us,” Tkachuk said. “To clinch the division, that’s great, but we’re not stopping there. We have bigger goals for our team.”
Calgary improved to 48-20-10.
“I was probably more excited about the 40 [goals], to be completely honest,” Tkachuk, said “But just the time of the game, everything, no score, to get the first one. Just super excited. The coolest part for me was the guys coming in, they were way more excited than I was, and I didn’t think that could be possible.”
Jason Robertson and Luke Glendening were the Dallas strikers.
Calgary’s Noah Hanifin used the fresh ice of the third period to score with 20 seconds gone in the stanza for a 2-1 lead.
The Stars have gone cold, and dropped to 43-30-5. They have lost four of their last five games.
Calgary’s Christopher Tanev snapped a 2-2 tie to send the Flames off to the win.
“We’re not satisfied,” Flames forward Mikael Backlund said. “We want to do something really big here, we know we can do it. It’s an accomplishment to win the division. It’s a long season, so the guys have done a great job and I’m really proud of our team.”
Andrew Mangiapane scored an empty-net goal for Calgary in the third.
Jake Oettinger made 33 saves in the Dallas loss.
“I think we would like to have locked up our spot already,” Oettinger said. “This road trip, we kind of gave some other teams some life. Last season we were in the same position but we were sitting around on our phones watching other teams and hoping they would win for us. Now we don’t have to do that. There’s no one else to blame. It’s in our hands.”
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