The Calgary Flames passed a big test on Wednesday night when they survived a rally by the New York Islanders in a 4-2 victory.
The Flames needed a measuring stick of their ability to beat a good team from the Eastern Conference and despite giving up a 2-0 lead over the second and third periods, they regained their legs and stifled the Isles attack over the last 18 minutes of the match.
Johnny Gaudreau scored in thrid period to end Isles rally – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Flames got two quick goals from Johnny Gaudreau and Austin Czarnik, 29 seconds apart, after the Isles had tied early in the third on a goal from Anders Lee.
“Tonight was one of our best games we’ve played since coming off the All-Star break,” Gaudreau said. “It showed. We outshot them pretty good. Special teams … outplayed them. [Smith] was a rock back there. It was a really good team effort. I was really happy with the way we played.”
Mikael Backlund and Travis Hamonic also scored for the Flames.
Mike Smith made 17 saves in the victory.
Casey Cizikas also scored for the Islanders.
“I thought we played great from start to finish,” Czarnik said. “Obviously, they had a little pushback in the third, which we were expecting, but for us to stay with it, get that big power-play goal from [Gaudreau].”
The Islanders dropped to 35-18-9.
“We got a big F. Failure,” New York coach Barry Trotz said. “We had too many passengers. We weren’t emotionally and physically engaged, at least in the first half of the game. We sort of crawled our way back in and gave it back. We didn’t deserve to win.”
The Flames improved to 37-16-7.
“I thought we played great. We played in the o-zone a lot tonight,” Gaudreau said. “When we were in the d-zone, I thought we were pretty good in front of [Smith]. [Smith] had some big saves as well. Big [penalty kill] at the end there. Power play looked good as well. Pretty good, complete game for our team and a nice win.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Flames highlights]
Thomas Greiss made 28 saves in the loss.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Cizikas said. “We just couldn’t finish it. I think going into the third 2-1, the way we were playing, we would’ve taken that. To get that early goal definitely got us going, but we’ve got to find a way to be better for 60 minutes because that wasn’t good at all.”
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