CALGARY — Adam Ruzicka had a goal and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.
Andrew Mangiapane scored two goals, and Mikael Backlund had three assists for the Flames (11-10-3), who have won two of their past three games. Dan Vladar made 27 saves.
“We’ve got to continue to keep the momentum going,” Backlund said. “We don’t want to win one, lose one. We don’t want to get into that. We want to get a streak going here. It’s important for us. We’re behind, so we need to get some wins together. “
Conor Sheary and John Carlson scored for the Capitals (10-12-4), who have lost three of four.
Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves before leaving at 16:09 of the second period because of an upper-body injury. Charlie Lindgren allowed two goals on nine shots in relief.
“It’s been a tough year, obviously,” the Washington forward Anthony Mantha said. “We would love to be on a 10-game winning streak. Obviously, that’s not the case. We need to figure it out within our group. I think we have enough vets to take charge there. Everyone kind of knows how to play. We just need to execute.”
Video: WSH@CGY: Coleman rips home a shot from the circle
Blake Coleman gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 18:03 of the first after corralling a pass from Ruzicka at the bottom of the right circle and shooting over Kuemper’s blocker and under the crossbar.
“To be honest, I just saw an opening open up and just kind of wired it there,” Ruzicka said.
Sheary tied it 1-1 at 19:26 with a power-play goal, scoring short side over Vladar’s glove from the right face-off dot, but Mangiapane made it 2-1 at 1:35 of the second with a shot over Kuemper’s. left shoulder.
“The second period, we didn’t generate anything,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “The third period, I thought that we came out and tried to push, and when you’re trying to push like that, we got exposed off the rush, so we got caught with numbers through the neutral zone. Probably should’ve pulled out, backed off.”
Ruzicka put the Flames ahead 3-1 at 13:39 of the third when he beat Lindgren glove side on a breakaway set up by Backlund.
Mangiapane then extended the lead to 4-1 just 55 seconds later with a shot from the slot.
“They’re a good team over there, so you know it’s going to be a close, physical game,” Mangiapane said. “We knew that kind of going into it. I think we just stuck to our system, and in the end, in the third period, I don’t think we gave them much. We really just waited for them to make mistakes, and we capitalized on our opportunities.”
Video: WSH@CGY: Mangiapane buries a one-timer on the rush
Carlson scored at 18:54 to make it 4-2 before Elias Lindholm shot into an empty net with four seconds remaining for the 5-2 final.
Washington defenseman Martin Fehervary Left the game at 8:19 of the second because of an upper-body injury following a hit from Milan Lucic. Both Fehervary and Kuemper will be reevaluated on Sunday.
“I thought ‘Chucky’ [Lindgren] played pretty solid in there for us, honestly, and ‘Marty’ [Fehervary] does a lot of work for us back there,” Capitals forward TJ Oshie said. “That was tough for us. I haven’t seen them there, but I hope they’re both doing great.
“We’ve had a next-man-up mentality for a couple years now, and when you have that you need everyone going. You need everyone picking up for those holes of the guys that are out.”
NOTES: Washington captain Alex Ovechkin played in his 1,300th NHL game. He is the 14th player in NHL history to play 1,300 games with one franchise, and the second No. 1 pick to do so with the team that drafted him, joining Mike Modano (No. 1 in 1988), who played in 1,459 games with the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars. … Calgary forward Nazem Kadri had an assist on Mangiapane’s second goal to end a seven-game point drought.
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