In Calgary, the Flames’ offense woke up, at least on Tuesday, in a 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
The Flames put three on the board in the first period to take control of the game.
Dillon Dube opened the scoring for a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“I think it was a good way for us to start the week and start the homestand,” Dube said. “It was our goal tonight, whether it was a 1-0 hockey game or whatever the score was, we needed to win and get that home ice advantage for the start of this swing, so it’s going to be really good for us.”
Jonathan Huberdeau and Rasmus Andersson added to the outburst in the opening frame for a 3-0 lead headed to the second period.
Dan Vladar made 31 saves in the Flames win.
Calgary improved to 10-9-3.
The win came on the night Matthew Tkachuk returned to Calgary with Panthers.
“This road trip is very important for us. Three more games,” Tkachuk said. “That’s three losses in a row. Last two before this night we expected to win those games and they didn’t go our way, and we can’t let that trickle into today. We want to have better starts.”
Nick Cousins and Sam Reinhart scored for Florida in the middle frame.
“I think every chance we gave them they capitalized early on,” Reinhart said. “It’s tough to play catch-up, especially when the energy isn’t there. I think you want to come out, especially on a back to back, play simple and get yourself in the game that way. I think we made it too tough on ourselves early on.”
Florida dropped to 10-9-3.
“I was looking forward to this game,” Tkachuk said. “It wasn’t like we talked about earlier, like I needed this game to close the door on my history here. That wasn’t the case at all. That door was closed a long time ago. But it’s always going to be nice coming back here and playing for the rest of my career.”
Calgary’s Brett Ritchie scored between the two Florida goals in the second period to send the game to the third period with the Flames up, 4-2.
Tyler Toffoli and Andrew Mangiapane scored in the third for the 6-2 final.
“He (Toffoli) set me up pretty good [earlier],” Dube said. “2-on-0’s can be tricky sometimes though, you overpass sometimes and goalies read it well. I’m happy he scored, otherwise it wouldn’t have looked too good, so I’m happy he scored.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves in the loss.
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