In Pittsburgh, the visiting Calgary Flames ended a four-game slide as Mike Smith made 34 saves to get the win and withstand a surge by the Penguins in the third period.
The Flames posted four goals in the middle frame.
Travis Hamonic had a goal for the Flames in win in Pittsburgh – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Obviously, there’s stuff you still want to clean up, but everything’s moving back to where it was when we were buzzing,” Smith said. “[Pittsburgh is] a good team there. We felt good coming into this game after [a 3-2 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday], even though we didn’t get two points. We knew we wanted to finish this road trip off on a right note here and get two points tonight.”
Evgeni Malkin struck for two power-play goals in the third period to make the game interesting; he was returning from suspension Saturday night.
“I think we fought hard,” Malkin said. “Just [need] a little bit better play 5-on-5. The power play worked tonight. … I think we played, in the third period, really good. We try to score in the last minute, but I think we showed we play hard. It’s not everything perfect. A couple mistakes, but I think we’re fine.”
Andrew Mangiapane, Michael Frolik, Austin Czarnik, Travis Hamonic,and Sam Bennett scored for the Flames.
“The last couple games in the past haven’t been where we want to be,” Bennett said. “We had a good pushback tonight. That’s a huge two points for us. … I don’t think it’s a sigh of relief. No one in this locker room is worried at all. We’re still in first place in the West, and we’re still as confident as ever. So it’s just good to get back on track.”
Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby also scored for the Pens.
“We made it a little harder than we would’ve liked by putting them on the power play. They made some good plays on the power play. … They made us pay for our penalties, for sure,” Flames head coach Bill Peters said after the win.
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Penguins highlights]
Matt Murray made 19 saves and yielded all five of the Flames’ goals.
He was pulled in the second intermission and Casey DeSmith finished up the game in the third period; he made seven saves.
“I just thought [the power play’s] execution was really good. I thought after we got the first power-play goal, I think they got a lot of confidence off of that. You could see it with the next power plays that we got. They had much more composure with the puck. They were the power play that we always expect from them,” Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said.
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