In Calgary on Sunday night, Mark Giordano and Matthew Tkachuk struck for two goals apiece as the Flames routed the visiting Arizona Coyotes, 7-1.
“We know when we play the right way we can score goals,” Giordano said. “For us it’s about being smart at the blue lines and playing well defensively. When we do that we know we’re going to create and score goals, so we’ll be fine.”
Matthew Tkachuk had a pair of goals in Flames win over Arizona – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
Mike Smith made 22 saves to get the win.
“It was more like how we’re capable of starting a game,” Smith said. “I think we hadn’t started well the last couple (of games), so it was nice to get out to a good lead there and then kind of push the game on forward and get a big win again.”
Jordan Oesterle scored the lone Coyotes goal.
“We’re playing a first-place team and we can’t have four or five guys on the outside looking in,” Arizona head coach Rick Tocchet said. “We had four guys that weren’t good tonight and Calgary smelled it after the first period. They scored on their chances, they had 26 shots and they got seven goals. That’s what happens. We had a couple guys that weren’t ready to go.”
Arizona dropped to 20-22-3.
The Flames pushed their record to 30-13-4and remain in the Pacific Division’s top spot.
Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Sam Bennett added single markers for the Flames.
“It seems like after every game you look at the scoresheet and he’s got two or three on there,” Giordano said. “Their commitment is really good this year. I like the way he backchecks. I like the way that whole line plays defensively now. That’s going to be huge for us going into the playoffs. If we can get around playing well defensively, we know we have the offense.”
[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Flames highlights]
Adin Hill made 19 saves in the loss.
“I thought we had some good chances to take the lead, but it felt like they were scoring on every chance they got. We talked about being hard in front of our own net and we gave them some good looks there in the middle,” the Coyotes’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson said after the loss.
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