Flames down Canucks, 5-2 Huberdeau, Lindholm break scoring droughts

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In Calgary, Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves in a 5-2 win for the Flames over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.

Elias Lindholm had a goal and three points in the win.

The Flames improved to 6-8-2.

“I think a lot has changed,” Lindholm said. “I think we’re following the system more, more dialed in, winning more battles, and we’re working harder, all it comes down to. There’s a lot of good teams in this league and you’re not going to win on skill. We’re one of those teams that have to work harder than the other team to win games, and I think we’ve started realizing that.”

In a rare sighting, Jonathan Huberdeau  had a goal and two points for Calgary.

Elias Pettersson staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period off a power play goal.

The Flames responded with three goals to take control of the game.

MacKenzie Weegar scored first to knot the game at 1-1 at 17:55 of the first.

In the middle frame, Dillon Dube followed that up with a marker at 10:49 for a 2-1 lead to the Flames.

Noah Hanifin scored off a 4-on-4 situation with 36 seconds left in the second for a 3-1 advantage for Calgary.

“It was a tough game,” Vancouver forward Dakota Joshua said. “We’ve got to find a way to still be productive in those tough back-to-backs. We didn’t really do a good job of that through the first 40 (minutes), but it was still right there at the end. Came up on the wrong side of this one, but back at it Saturday (against the Seattle Kraken).”

The Canucks dropped to 12-4-1.

Huberdeau scored his first goal in 12 games at 5:35 of the third to extend the lead to 4-1.

“Obviously it felt good,” said Huberdeau. “It’s been a while. That was good to finally get a goal and a big win for us.”

Vancouver got one back midway through the third for a 4-2 count off a marker from Nils Hoglander.

Lindholm scored an empty-net goal with just under two minutes left on the game clock for the 5-2 final. It was his first goal in 11 games.

“I think kind of a little slow start, but I thought they looked a little faster than us in the beginning,” Lindholm said. “After that I thought we controlled the game and didn’t give up too much. ‘Marky’ played well in net. So, it was a good game.”

Casey DeSmith made 34 saves in the loss.