LAS VEGAS — Tyler Toffoli and Blake Coleman each scored two goals as the Calgary Flames beat Vegas 7-2 on Thursday night to earn their first road win over the Golden Knights.
The Flames, who have lost 13 of their 20 games so far, have scored seven goals for the third time this season. Four came in the third period to defeat the game.
“It’s a huge win,” said Coleman. “Obviously in the third halves we had trouble knocking out teams. We did a pretty good job tonight from start to finish making sure we didn’t take our foot off the accelerator.”
It was the first time in nine tries that the Flames had won in Vegas since the Golden Knights joined the NHL in 2017. Earlier, the Knights had beaten Calgary 34-11 in Las Vegas.
MacKenzie Weegar, Mikael Backlund and Dillon Dube also scored for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom stopped 17 shots and won for the fourth time in his last six starts.
“They’re coming back from a long trip, there’s a lot of time zone changes coming up and our only focus[was]to have a good first period,” said Calgary coach Darryl Sutter. “It doesn’t matter whether (the final) was 10-2 or 3-2, we need points.”
PHOTOS: Toffoli, Coleman score twice each, Flames win 7-2 in Vegas
Jonathan Quick, who made 23 saves, lost for the first time since being acquired by Vegas.
Zach Whitecloud and Reilly Smith scored for the Golden Knights, who went home after a 4-1-0 away game with the league’s best 13-2-2 mark since the All-Star break.
Vegas, which has struggled with the second-worst power play in the league (12.5%) since Dec. 28, went 0-4 with a man advantage.
“Our power play had an opportunity to put us back in the game and we failed in that area,” said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy.
Calgary opened the scoring late in the first period when Rasmus Andersson collected the puck from a faceoff in the right circle and served Weegar, whose shot was lasered into the net by the blue line.
Toffoli, who also assisted Weegar’s goal, added to his stats early in the second minute as he ran across the crease and around Quick to bury the puck and give the Flames a 2-0 lead.
Whitecloud brought Vegas onto the board later in the second round when he ran around the edge of the right circle and fired a wrist shot past Markstrom, halving Calgary’s 7:27 lead at halftime.
After missing an opportunity to tie the game earlier in a shift with a backhand that flew over the net, Smith made amends when he took William Karlsson’s chuck on the doorstep and slammed it home on the night of Game 2- all.
Calgary quickly regained the lead when Coleman deflected home an Elias Lindholm shot from the right side of the goal line just over a minute after Smith’s goal.
“You have to put pressure on this team,” said Coleman. “They are a good team. They will have their pushes. Of course you don’t want to lose a two-goal advantage. We were able to answer tonight.”
The Flames started to get some breathing room midway through the third game when Backlund scored after trying to feed Toffoli from below the goal line. Instead, the puck bounced off Alex Pietrangelo’s stick and Quick’s head before going in goal.
Toffoli and Coleman then added their second goals of the evening before Dube finished the goal.
REMARKS
Backlund has five games under 900 in his career. …Smith has three goals and six assists in his last seven games for Vegas.
NEXT
Flames: Hosts the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Golden Knights: Hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
Source : www.washingtontimes.com