In Calgary, Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves and the Flames blanked the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0, on Saturday night.
It was his ninth shutout of the season.
“It’s definitely a team stat,” Markstrom said. “I just try to tell the guys to keep going and keep playing this way. It’s fun to be a goalie for this team.”
The Flames improved to 36-15-7.
“You’ve got to learn how to win close games, too,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “If their goalie would have stood on his head and they had won the game, then it might have been frustrating, but it’s not the way the league works.”
Elias Lindholm scored off the power play in the first period to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
“I play with obviously two really good players (Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk),” Lindholm said. “A lot of goals have been easy goals, but it’s always nice to get to 30. I’ve been close a couple times but haven’t been able to get there. It’s obviously nice to finally break it.”
Detroit dropped to 24-28-7.
“You never get these games back,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I don’t care what our last little bit has been. You can’t not play your A game on a nightly basis, and if you don’t have an A, have a B. Is there a mental grind to it? For sure there is. Is there a mental wear on you when you’ve gone through a tough stretch and you’re looking up in the standings? For sure there is. Is that an excuse? No chance. We’ve got to be way more mentally tough than that.”
Tyler Toffoli added a second power play marker for Calgary in the third period for a 2-0 lead.
Blake Coleman added a strike late in the game for the 3-0 final.
“I thought we went out and pushed in the third,” Blashill said. “I thought we were way better in the third until they scored there and made it a little bit harder, and then we took the penalty and they scored again. But I did think we pushed, though.”
Thomas Greiss made 40 saves in the Red Wings loss.
“We didn’t like the way we were playing, didn’t like the way it was going, but we’re still down by one goal and there’s an opportunity to get some life and get back in the game,” the Red Wings’ Sam Gagner said. “We wanted to have some positive energy and come out in the third and try to create some looks, and we did that for a little bit of time.”
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