Flames ease past Canucks, push point streak to 6

CALGARY -- Matt Coronato had a goal and two assists to extend his point streak to five games, and the Calgary Flames defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

Coronato has two goals and five assists during his streak and credited his linemates Morgan Frost and Matvei Gridin for his recent run.

“Me, ‘Frosty’ and ‘Griddy,’ I feel like we’re getting more comfortable with each other every game and it’s been going well,” Coronato said. “We have a great group in here, a great room. We’re going to come out and play as hard as we can every night and we’re showing that when we’re playing the right way, we’re a really hard team to beat. We’re going to look to continue that.”

Frost also had a goal and two assists for the Flames (31-34-8), who finished 5-0-1 on their six-game homestand. Ryan Strome, Olli Maatta and Zayne Parekh each had a goal and an assist. Hunter Brzustewicz had two assists, and Dustin Wolf made 31 saves.

“This stretch of six games, we played fairly consistent, the brand that you have to play,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “Yes, we gave up some chances. Both goaltenders were good while we were here. The power play scored us a few goals, key ones at times, and I thought we had contributions from all four lines at various times and that’s an important thing for our team.”

Calgary is seven points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

“If we can take some of what we did at home here onto the road, which hasn’t been easy for us this year, you give yourself a chance to win hockey games and that’s what it’s all about,” Huska said.

Liam Ohgren, Jake DeBrusk and Nils Hoglander scored, and Elias Pettersson had two assists for the Canucks (21-43-8), who have lost five games in a row. Nikita Tolopilo allowed four goals on 11 shots. He was replaced at 4:36 of the second period by Kevin Lankinen, who made nine saves.

“We’ve got to be better in front of ‘Tolo’ there,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “I know he probably wanted a couple of those, but little details (led to goals). 

“Those little details can burn you in a game that wasn’t out of control, and we let it get away from us early. We kept fighting, but you’ve got to take care of your end, the details (and) we didn’t.”

Coronato gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 3:04 of the first period. Tolopilo stopped the initial shot by Parekh and the puck bounced into the left circle to Coronato, who scored his 17th goal of the season with a wrist shot.

“He’s around the puck more,” Huska said. “When you look at him, he’s making plays, shooting the puck. I feel like he’s competitive on it.”

Joel Farabee put the Flames up 2-0 at 4:59 when he battled his way to the front of the net before redirecting Zach Whitecloud’s point shot past Tolopilo.

Brock Boeser appeared to score for the Canucks at 6:22, but the call was reversed following a successful coach’s challenge for goalie interference.

Ohgren scored at 18:53 to cut the lead to 2-1. On a 2-on-1, Linus Karlsson passed the puck around Whitecloud out front to Ohgren, who snapped a shot over Wolf’s blocker.

“Nice to score goals, but it feels better with a win,” said Petterson, who had the secondary assist.

Strome made it 3-1 for the Flames at 1:32 of the second period, tipping Maatta’s point shot past Tolopilo.

Maatta extended Calgary’s lead to 4-1 at 4:36. Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek attempted to clear the puck away from in front of his net, but it bounced off Maatta and past Tolopilo.

“Obviously, there was a couple nice bounces in there and that’s what you hope for,” Maatta said.

Frost made it 5-1 just 11 seconds later at 4:47 when he backhanded a shot through the legs of Lankinen, who had replaced Tolopilo in net.​

DeBrusk scored a power-play goal at 13:36, redirecting a shot by Boeser past Wolf to make it 5-2.

Parekh replied with a power-play goal for the Flames at 19:23 with a wrist shot over Lankinen’s blocker to push the lead back to 6-2.

“It wasn’t our best power play up until that point,” said Coronato, who set up the goal. “It was a little bit of a risky play. I got kind of lucky and Zayne made a great shot.”

Hoglander scored at 12:40 of the third period to make it 6-3, redirecting a pass from Victor Mancini past Wolf.

Adam Klapka scored on the power play at 19:52 for the 7-3 final, taking a pass from Brennan Othmann and lifting a shot past Lankinen.

“We’ve got to (play) better defense, all of the guys,” Pettersson said. “Too many good chances scored on. I thought we played pretty good offense; can’t believe we gave up that many on defense.”

NOTES: Parekh recorded his first multipoint game in the NHL. He joined Dion Phaneuf (11 times) as the only Flames defensemen age 20 or younger to have a multipoint game in the past 25 years. … With an assist, Gridin became the first Flames rookie with a five-game point streak (five points; one goal, four assists) since Matthew Tkachuk (nine games, 2016-17).