CALGARY — Rasmus Andersson had a goal and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 6-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.
Tyler Toffoli and Dillon Dube each had a goal and an assist, and Noah Hanifin had three assists for the Flames (22-16-9), who had lost two in a row. Dan Vladar made 21 saves.
“It was a lot of emotion and a lot of goals,” Andersson said. “It was a fun one and a good thing we came out on top.”
Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves for the Lightning (29-15-1), who have lost two straight after winning their previous five, the first three of which began a season-long five-game road trip.
“If we can win five, lose two, win five, lose two, I’ll take that all day,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “That’ll get us home ice (in the Stanley Cup Playoffs). It’s just frustrating. To me that’s always a successful trip, but when you go 3-0 and drop the last two, it makes it a little sour. But we ‘ll take it. About .500 on the trip, and it puts a little more stress on us at home to do better than that.”
Toffoli tied it 2-2 at 12:18 of the second period when his wraparound attempt deflected off the skate of Victor Hedmanand Andersson put Calgary ahead 3-2 at 17:20 with a wrist shot from the point that deflected off Hedman in the slot and by Vasilevskiy.
Video: TBL@CGY: Toffoli tucks the loose puck home in the 2nd
Dube extended the lead to 4-2 at 7:40 of the third period.
“We competed every shift. We didn’t take too many off and played the right way,” Dube said. “There was a lot of competition from the guys out there today. We were really prepared to play and prepared to win. Really good job by our group.”
Cirelli cut it to 4-3 at 15:58 when he tapped in a rebound with Vasilevskiy on the bench for an extra skater.
However, Jonathan Huberdeau (17:44) and Blake Coleman (19:13) each scored an empty-net goal for the 6-3 final.
“I think we’ve just got to get back to playing our game, sticking to our structure for a full 60 minutes from the first puck drop to the last seconds of the game. Just playing our game no matter what the other team throws at us,” Cirelli said. “We have such high belief in this room. We’ve just got to get back to work.”
Kadri put Calgary ahead 1-0 at 17:58 of the first period with a power-play goal, redirecting Toffoli’s shot from the high slot through a screen.
Stamkos tied it 1-1 at 10:20 of the second period with a slap shot short side over Vladar’s right shoulder from the right circle. He has 12 points (six goals, six assists) during an eight-game point streak, including five goals in his past three games.
Video: TBL@CGY: Stamkos takes the turnover and scores
Vladislav Namestnikov was credited with a goal 48 seconds later to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead when Vladar poked Nicholas Paul‘s centering pass off his left leg and in.
“We bounced back quickly today, and I think we responded really well after their second goal, obviously,” Andersson said. “I’m proud of the guys. We bounced back quickly and once we got the lead, we played really well, I thought.”
NOTES: Flames forward Jakob Pelletier, who was selected in the first round (No. 26) of the 2019 NHL Draft, had one shot and one hit in 6:50 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Darryl Sutter passed Bob Johnson for the most wins in Flames history with 194. Sutter is 194-125-35 with 15 ties during six seasons (two stints) with Calgary. … Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel had an NHL career-high six-game point streak end. … Lightning forward Pat Maroon left the game at 7:11 of the third period with an apparent upper-body injury and did not return. There was no update after the game. … Dube’s goal was his 100th NHL point (47 goals, 53 assists).
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