In Calgary, Andrew Mangiapane hit for a double on Saturday night in a 5-2 win for the Flames over the Washington Capitals.
Mangiapane’s first goal came in the second period to snap a 1-1, tie with the Caps.
Dan Vladar made 27 saves in the Flames win.
Adam Ruzicka had a goal and three points in the Flames win.
Calgary improved to 11-10-3.
“We’ve got to continue to keep the momentum going,” Calgary’s Marcus Backlund said. “We don’t want to win one, lose one. We don’t want to get into that. We want to get a streak going here. It’s important for us. We’re behind, so we need to get some wins together.”
Calgary’s Blake Coleman and the Caps’ Connor Sheary traded goals in the first period for a 1-1 tie.
Mangiapane and Ruzicka scored in the middle frame to give the Flames a 3-1 advantage.
“They’re a good team over there, so you know it’s going to be a close, physical game,” Mangiapane said. “We knew that kind of going into it. I think we just stuck to our system, and in the end, in the third period, I don’t think we gave them much. We really just waited for them to make mistakes, and we capitalized on our opportunities.”
The Caps dropped to 10-12-4.
“The second period, we didn’t generate anything,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “The third period, I thought that we came out and tried to push, and when you’re trying to push like that, we got exposed off the rush, so we got caught with numbers through the neutral zone. Probably should’ve pulled out, backed off.”
The Caps’ John Carlson scored late in the third to cut the lad to 4-2, but Elias Lindholm hit for an empty-netter for the 5-2 final.
“I thought ‘Chucky’ [Lindgren] played pretty solid in there for us, honestly, and ‘Marty’ [Fehervary] does a lot of work for us back there,” Capitals forward TJ Oshie said. “That was tough for us. I haven’t seen them in there, but I hope they’re both doing great.
“We’ve had a next-man up mentality for a couple years now, and when you have that you need everyone going. You need everyone picking up for those holes of the guys that are out.”
Darcy Kuemper got the start for the Caps, and made 24 saves before leaving the ice late in the middle frame with an apparent injury.He had surrendered three goals.
Charlie Lindgren made seven shots in relief, and surrendered two markers.
“It’s been a tough year, obviously,” Washington forward Anthony Mantha said. “We would love to be on a 10-game winning streak. Obviously, that’s not the case. We need to figure it out within our group. I think we have enough vets to take charge there. Everyone kind of knows how to play. We just need to execute.”
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