In Seattle, the visiting Calgary Flames fell behind early to the Kraken on Friday, 1-0, but reeled off three goal in the first period to take a 3-1 lead.
“We definitely needed to beat these guys,” Flames forward Tyler Toffoli said. “They’re ahead of us [in the standings]. It was a playoff atmosphere. Fans were awesome here, and like I said we needed a win, and we did a great job.”
Toffoli had a goal and two points as the Flames rode the momentum from the first period to a 5-2 win.
Elias Lindholm and Blake Coleman kicked in single markers and three points for Calgary.
Dan Vladar made 29 saves.
“Obviously, the guys played great in front of me,” Vladar said. “Totally different group than last night and you know after that terrible game yesterday, we came back. I don’t think anyone’s happy right now because we should have had four out of four [points].”
Seattle took the first period lead on a goal from John Hayden.
“We weren’t very good tonight, that’s all,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Our group wasn’t good, especially in the middle portion of the game. We had no energy, and that’s top to bottom. We didn’t make it real hard on them. I’m not taking anything away from them, not in any way, shape or form, but, we didn’t have any pace to our game.
“Our puck play was sloppy. Anything that we put into the zone on the forecheck, we had very little speed, [which] allowed for a lot of easy exits for them. I don’t want to get into every detail. We weren’t very good tonight, bottom line.”
Eeli Tolvanen scored in the third period for the Kraken.
The Kraken dropped to 28-15-5.
Lindholm, Toffoli, and Nikita Zadorov scored for the Flames in the first period for the 3-1 lead that stayed that way until the third period.
“They scored first, but I think from then on we did a good job of containing them,” Toffoli said. “Obviously in the third they had a push there, and we took some unnecessary penalties but obviously killed them off, getting a good break with a goalie interference, but overall, just a good win.”
Calgary improved to 24-17-9.
Tolvanen cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third, But Noah Hanifin pushed the advantage to 4-2, and Coleman hit an empty net with 80 seconds left for the 5-2 final.
Martin Jones made 33 saves in the Seattle loss.
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