In Newark, a four-goal first period by the Calgary Flames ended any suspense for the last 40 minutes of their match with the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Calgary rode the outburst to a 5-3 win.
“We’re learning a lot to play the right way,” Calgary head coach Darryl Sutter said. “We have good players and they’ve been here for a while. It’s a big adjustment process, learning how to play the right way and do it consistently. This team works really hard and is playing together and playing things right.”
The Flames improved to 4-1-1.
Andrew Mangiapane struck for two of the first period goals.
“Players here are just kind of finding me,” Mangiapane said. “It’s definitely nice. Obviously, it is more important to get the two points.”
Calgary’s Dan Vladar made 27 saves for the win.
The Devils scored two goals in the third period after the Flames had taken a 5-1 lead.
“We lost wall battles, puck battles, our 50-50 battles weren’t good (in the first period),” New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff said. “A lot of our pain was self-inflicted. [Calgary’s] will was just greater than ours, so let’s call it for what it was. They got to pucks quicker, they won the battles on the wall and they deserved to get the lead.”
New Jersey’s Pavel Zacha had two strikes in the loss.
“We didn’t compete the first couple of shifts, and teams like that can kind of convert it to goals,” Zacha said. “We left our goalie there without any help. It’s just something we have to get rid of, work on to get better next game.”
Dawson Mercer added a single marker for New Jersey.
Milan Lucic, Mangiapane, and Elias Lindholm gave the Flames a 3-0 lead before New Jersey made a goalie change.
“We capitalized on an early opportunity,” Lucic said. “It’s always nice to get the first one, especially on the back-to-back. I think that’s been a key to our success the last five games, we’ve been able to get that.”
Mangiapane’s second goal make it 4-0 before the end of the period.
“We had a good start,” Mangiapane said. “We knew we needed to come out strong and get our legs underneath us. We scored on some early opportunities, and I think that was the difference in the game.”
Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal near the midway point of the third period for a 5-1 lead to Calgary.
Nico Daws got the start for New Jersey and surrendered three goals on just seven shots before getting the hook in the opening frame.
“I think the compete, our speed, puck management, all the little details are on us to be better at the start of the game,” Mercer said. “Calgary took advantage of that. I think as the game went on, we got better. In the third we really showed the type of team we are, but we’ve got to bring that all three periods of every game.”
Scott Wedgewood made 20 saves for the rest of the way.
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