It was another close one, but for the second game in as many nights, the Flames came out on the wrong end of the score.

Down 2-1 with two minutes and change to go, the Flames pulled goaltender Dustin Wolf but couldn't find the tying tally against the Sabres Sunday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Buffalo potting two empty-netters for a 4-1 victory.

Calgary lost 4-2 in another tight contest in Vancouver less than 24 hours earlier.

Jonathan Huberdeau had the lone marker for the Flames, while Wolf finished with 25 saves.

The Sabres scored on their first shot of the game when Calgary product Peyton Krebs skated in on the left-wing and snapped a puck farside under the glove of Wolf at 4:53.

With time winding down in the first, Wolf denied Bowen Byram on a 3-on-1 Sabres rush when the blueliner held and fired. The former first-round pick has been on a tear since being acquired right before the trade deadline from Colorado, scoring three goals and six points in eight outings.

The Flames got on the board with a powerplay tally at 10:35, moments after Yegor Sharangovich had rang one off the post. Huberdeau then tried to fire a pass towards the net and it went off the stick of Owen Power and into the cage for No. 10’s 10th of the season.

Martin Pospisil got a breakaway minutes later, winding up to fake a slapshot, then trying to finesse it five hole, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen making the save and the Flames forward then putting the rebound off the post from a tight angle.

Wolf said ‘hold my water bottle’ after that one, later stopping big Tage Thompson’s partial breakaway.

With time winding down, Wolf also denied Alex Tuch’s tip attempt on a powerplay to keep it knotted at one after 40 minutes.  

JJ Peterka scored the game-winner at 11:04 of the third period, slipping into the slot and one-timing a pass from Tage Thompson who was behind the net. Thompson and Connor Clifton finished it off with the empty-netters. 

Prior to the tilt, the Flames honoured Chris Simon, who passed away March 18.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Yegor Sharangovich - Andrei Kuzmenko

Connor Zary - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

A.J. Greer - Kevin Rooney - Dryden Hunt

DEFENCE

Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Joel Hanley - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf - starter

Jacob Markstrom

VANCOUVER — J.T. Miller's third-period goal stood up as the winner as the Canucks doubled up the Flames 4-2 Saturday at Rogers Arena.

 

Rasmus Andersson and Joel Hanley replied for Calgary, who battled valiantly but fell short against the Western Conference leaders.

 

The homeside opened the scoring inside the opening minute, as Elias Pettersson set up linemate Nils Hoglander for a tap in at the back post.

 

That early goal proved to be the only marker of the opening frame, but not without a lack of trying on Calgary’s part.

 

Canucks netminder Casey DeSmith was forced into a pair of tricky pad saves before the midway mark off shots from Daniil Miromanov and Andrew Mangiapane.

 

Andersson then stepped into a slapshot from the top of the right circle that dented DeSmith’s left post.

 

Shots on goal were even at six apiece through 20 minutes - Markstrom’s best stop coming with just under six minutes to play, he padded aside a Miller effort from just outside his crease after the sniper found space down the right wing.

 

Hoglander extended the Canucks’ lead 8:16 into the middle frame on a quick counter-attack.

 

He accepted the puck from Pettersson and converted on a breakaway backhand for his 22nd goal of the season.

 

The visitors kept pressing, coming close on a breakaway of their own moments later, during which Jonathan Huberdeau forced DeSmith into a save and Vasily Podkolzin into a minor penalty for slashing.

 

Calgary’s efforts in the offensive zone paid dividends with 1:29 to play in the middle frame.

 

A.J. Greer feathered a drop pass into the high slot from the right wing, allowing Andersson to step into a snapshot that zipped past DeSmith’s left arm.

Saturday's contest was a bit of a chess match, and that was especially evident during the third period.

 

Calgary came close to tying the game with just under seven minutes on the clock; the puck bounced out front to Huberdeau who cranked a wrist shot off DeSmith’s left post.

 

Miller added insurance on a Vancouver powerplay at the 16:42 mark, then Vancouver rounded out their portion of the scoring with an empty-net marker from Elias Lindholm in the dying embers of the game.

 

Hanley cut the lead to 4-2 in the final minute of play, slapping a puck short side on DeSmith from the left circle to record his first goal in Flames silks.

Head coach Ryan Huska pinned the loss on a lack of execution in the offensive zone.

 

"After the first five, six minutes I thought we settled in and played a pretty good road game," he said. "Our finish or those situations, or those chances wasn't there for us tonight, and they scored on the powerplay and we didn't."

 

Markstrom made 22 saves in his return to the Flames lineup, while Connor Zary earned 16:24 of icetime in his first game since Mar. 2.

Greer finished the night with two assists.

 

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Yegor Sharangovich - Andrei Kuzmenko
Connor Zary - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman
A.J. Greer - Kevin Rooney - Dryden Hunt

Defence

Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov
Joel Hanley - Brayden Pachal

Goaltenders

Jacob Markstrom - Starter
Dustin Wolf

Scratches: Matt Coronato, Walker Duehr, Dennis Gilbert, Nikita Okhotiuk

 

Pinto scored a power-play goal on a slap shot that Ullmark got a piece of with his glove but couldn't keep out of the net. After Brazeau put Boston up 3-1 with a power-play goal on a rebound with 1:09 left in the second, Tkchuck cut the margin back to one in the waning seconds of the period when he poked in his own rebound. With 31 goals, Tkachuk is just four shy of his career high, which he set last season.

CALGARY -- Alex Ovechkin scored two goals, including his 20th of the season, to help the Washington Capitals to a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.

 

Ovechkin is the sixth player in NHL history to score at least 20 goals in a season 19 times, joining Gordie Howe (22), Ron Francis (20), Brendan Shanahan (19), Dave Andreychuk (19) and Jaromir Jagr (19).

 

He also became the third to do so in 19 consecutive seasons, along with Howe (22) and Shanahan (19).

 

"That's pretty impressive, I think," Washington forward Dylan Strome said. "It's impressive. He's a world-class player. He's a Hall of Famer. There's not many things that hasn't been said about him, but he keeps doing it, even at age 38. It's fun to be a part of, fun to watch."

 

Ovechkin is the only player in NHL history to reach the mark from the start of his career. He has 843 career goals, 51 behind Gretzky (894) for the most in League history.

 

"We're all cheering for him," Washington forward Hendrix Lapierre said.

 

"Everyone's super happy when he scores. Obviously, everyone's super happy when everyone scores, but I feel like there's a little something extra with 'O.' And it was two really big goals tonight, too. We're just super happy for him and we're just trying to help him in this chase. He's looking pretty [darn] good.”

Strome and Tom Wilson each had a goal and an assist, and Lapierre scored for the Capitals (33-25-9), who won their third straight and moved into the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Charlie Lindgren made 34 saves.

 

"It's a great feeling," Ovechkin said. "We know it's not going to be easy. We keep fighting, keep playing. We'll go game by game."

 

MacKenzie Weegar and Kevin Rooney scored, and Dustin Wolf made 28 saves for the Flames (33-30-5), who had won two in a row.

 

"Five-on-five, I thought we did some things that we liked," Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. "I don't think we did a good enough job special team-wise. For me, that was the difference in the game. Both our power play in not generating anything for us, but also giving them momentum, and our penalty kill did that, too."

 

Strome gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 14:59 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Wolf's glove.

Ovechkin extended it to 2-0 at 5:58 of the second period when he redirected Max Pacioretty's centering pass on the power play for his 20th goal of the season.

 

"Consistency ... not just from the scoring part, but also him being in the lineup and being durable and him being able to play game after game after game all these years," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said.

 

"Happy for him. He gets his 20th and 21st, and they were huge. We needed every single bit of those two goals tonight."

 

Ovechkin made it 3-0 at 9:16 with a one-timer from the top of the right circle for another power-play goal. He has scored a goal against 174 goaltenders, the third most by a player in NHL history behind Jagr (178) and Patrick Marleau (177).

 

"I'm sure there'll be a couple more," Wolf said. "It's pretty special to play against a guy like that, and obviously didn't get the result, but that was pretty fun."

Rooney cut it to 3-1 at 10:41 by tipping in Brayden Pachal's backhand from the slot. The goal was upheld after Washington’s challenge for goaltender interference was unsuccessful.

Lapierre pushed it to 4-1 at 14:22 when he scored off a long, looping backhand pass from Sonny Milano.

 

"Sonny does some crazy things out there with the puck," Strome said.

 

"We're going to call that the alley-oop, I think, from that one. He threw it up there and ‘Lappy’ made a great play to hit it off of one bounce and put it upstairs. There's nothing much the goalie can do there on that one."

 

Weegar made it 4-2 at 7:13 of the third period, skating into the high slot and beating Lindgren with a slap shot glove side.

 

Wilson scored into an empty net at 17:31 for the 5-2 final.

 

"We knew that they were sort of in the same position we are," Weegar said.

 

"I wouldn't necessarily say they were a more desperate team because I thought we did play a good game 5-on-5. They obviously got some good bounces on the power play. I thought our power play, we needed to get one or two there, for sure. I thought our compete and effort was there 5-on-5."

 

Just over three minutes later, Washington’s power play struck again. Ovechkin set up at the top of the faceoff circle, stick cocked. When John Carlson slid a pass across, Ovechkin leaned into a slap shot that beat Wolf inside the near post.

Fresh off a 28-save performance in a 4-1 win against Vegas on Thursday, Dustin Wolf kicked it up a notch for his encore.

 

The Flames goaltender made 36 saves - a handful of them of the highlight-reel quality - as Calgary won their second straight game, dumping the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-2 in an early Saturday night tilt at the Scotiababank Saddledome.

 

Captain Mikael Backlund scored a pair, while Martin Pospisil, Nazem Kadri and Daniil Miromanov also tallied in the victory.

 

Backlund's second goal - which came just 11 seconds into the second period, same as his number in a neat coincidence - was the 200th of the Calgary captain's career. He also had an assist

 

MacKenzie Weegar had three points, while Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau each had two.

 

Notable on the night that both A.J. Greer and Andrei Kuzmenko returned to the lineup after missing time due to injury.

 

The victory came on the team's annual '80s Theme Night, this year honouring members of the team's 1989 Stanley Cup winning side that beat the Habs, including Lanny MacDonald, who was in attendance after suffereing a cardiac event in early Feburary.

 

He received a hero's welcome via a standing ovation and deafening cheers during a TV timeout, as was fitting for the franchise legend.

 

Wolf turned aside all 15 shots he faced in the opening stanza, the best coming as Cole Caufield tried to outwait him as he circled across the slot after a turnover, but Wolf stayed with him and lunged to get his paddle on the puck as the Montreal forward shot from his knees.

The Flames has some excellent looks in the first – an early doorstep tip from Kadri on a pass from Huberdeau, Blake Coleman on a partial breakaway, and Andrei Kuzmenko’s wicked wrister from the high slot – but Cayden Primeau stopped all three.

Backlund finally beat him with a nifty tip of MacKenzie Weegar’s point shot on a powerplay at 16:23 that went farside.

Backlund’s quick strike for his second came after Primeau made a save but ended up out of position trying to clear the rebound, Coleman sending a no-look pass from behind the net that Backlund merely had to tap home into the wide-open net.

Huberdeau showed off his otherworldly passing and vision at 7:41, knocking a puck out of the air and down to his stick as he stood in the blue paint with his back to Primeau, then making a quick, tight feed to Pospisil who potted his seventh of the season.

Montreal got on the board off a 2-on-1 rush, Nick Suzuki feeding a cross-ice pass to Caufield, whose one-timer beat Wolf back to the shortside at 10:34.

They would add another late in the frame, David Savard’s blueline blast beating a screened Wolf with 1:35 to go in the frame.

The Flames needed just six seconds to score on a third-period powerplay, Kadri redirecting a pass from Huberdeau between the wickets of Primeau at 1:01.

Miromanov scored his second as a Flame after he snuck in from the point for a pass and then circled behind the net and was in the right spot to grab the rebound of a Weegar blast and snap it into the cage.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Dryden Hunt - Yegor Sharangovich - Andrei Kuzmenko

Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

A.J. Greer - Kevin Rooney - Matt Coronato

DEFENCE

Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Nikita Okhotiuk - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf - starter

Dan Vladar

Bruins forward James van Riemsdyk was honored with an on-ice ceremony before the game for reaching 1,000 career NHL games earlier this month. After a video tribute, Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk gave him Tiffany crystal from the NHL, President Cam Neely presented a painting from the team and GM Don Sweeney delivered a silver stick.