In Calgary, a three-goal second period helped Send the Flames to a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves in the Flames win, their third in four games.
Calgary improved to 18-13-7.
Elias Lindholm got the offense rolling in the second period to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
“I think we’re on the right track,” Lindholm said. “Points in 12 out of 16. That’s pretty good. Still, I think there’s games where we feel we could’ve gotten more points or got the win. Overall, I think we went 8-4-4. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Calgary pushed it to 2-0 on a marker from Blake Coleman near the midway point of the period.
“We knew that this was a big game,” Coleman said. “You emphasize last game of the year and things like that. Whether it was on the kill or 5-on-5, just wanted to play really hard, and I thought I wasn’t alone in that.”
MacKenzie Weegar potted his first goal with Calgary at 14:17 for the 3-0 advantage.
“It feels great. Even better with the two points, obviously,” Weegar said. “It was a weird play. I honestly thought that it was going to be offside. [Chris Tanev] kept a good puck in and I didn’t want to jinx it by overcelebrating. Now I’m happy that it wasn’t offside and happy to get my first goal.”
From there, the Flames had to hold off the Canucks.
Vancouver cut off the Flames run in the middle frame on a goal from Sheldon Dries to make it 3-1 headed to the third period.
Vancouver dropped to 16-17-3.
“Sometimes your best players have to be your best players, and I didn’t think our best players in that second period were our best players,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Consequently when that happens, you get behind the eight ball.”
Elias Pettersson scored in the third to make 3-2, but Calgary managed to hang on for the win.
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“I think Calgary the last 10 minutes really did a good job of shutting us down,” Boudreau said. “I still think we can give more. Sometimes when you’re playing a bigger team you’ve got to get in there and get two guys and three guys in there so you win the battles. Too many of us were looking to be in the spot where, ‘you get the puck and get it to me and I’ll score,’ rather than going in and helping to get to it first of all create possession and then get the ability to score.”
Spencer Martin made 27 saves in the Canucks loss.
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