In Sunrise Friday night, the Calgary Flames pushed their win streak to six games with a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
David Rittich made 41 saves to pick up the win.
“Our goalie was great tonight,” the Flames’ Mark Giordano said. “Goaltending has been the story for us all season.”
Sean Monahan had a goal and two points in win over Panthers Fridaday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau struck for goals for the Flames as they have had a successful tour through Florida after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning this week, 5-1.
“I came in tonight knowing we won five in a row, and I wanted to keep it going,” Rittich said. “I just tried to show my best and give the guys a chance to win, and we did it.”
The win pushed the Flames to 24-16-4.
“You just have to stay steady (with winning streaks),” Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “You can’t get wound up and think about them. We’re going to push this group, and it’s a group that responds and has great character.”
Both Panthers goals came from Evgenii Dadonov.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Florida’s Keith Yandle said. “In the offensive zone, we did a lot of good things. In the D-zone, we did good things. When we did make mistakes, they capitalized. They found a way to score their goals. It’s a tough one to swallow right now. It would have been nice to get the win going into the break.”
Mikael Backlund added an empty-net goal late to seal the win.
“I thought they gutted it out on a back-to-back. You’re going to get something when your guys are starting to drive the bus. We’re starting to push each other even on the bench, which is a good thing,” -Gulutzan said after the game.
The loss dropped the Panthers to 18-19-6.
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Panthers highlights]
James Reimer made 25 saves in taking the loss.
“I thought we had good looks throughout the game. It’s one of those you kind of have to look, find ways to see how we lost that game. I thought [goalie James Reimer] played good. Their goalie (David Rittich) played good. We just didn’t bury our chances,” Yandle said after the loss.
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