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The elder statesman, Mikael Backlund, popped for three points, including a milestone goal.
The top prospect, Dustin Wolf, delivered a 36-save performance between the pipes.
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And the Calgary Flames, thanks to another solid group effort, skated Saturday to a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the Saddledome.
Backlund, on the eve of his 35th birthday, scored twice — Nos. 199 and 200 of his NHL career — and later added an assist. Martin Pospisil, Nazem Kadri and Daniil Miromanov also tickled twine for the locals, while Jonathan Huberdeau provided a pair of superb setups and MacKenzie Weegar contributed a hat-trick of helpers of his own.
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There was some concern in the C of Red when Backlund briefly disappeared to the locker-room in the opening period, missing a few shifts, but he returned with an immediate statement that he was feeling fine — a power-play goal. Hanging around the edge of the blue paint, Backlund managed to get a piece of Weegar’s shot from the blue-line.
Backlund’s line started the second, and Calgary’s captain capitalized on the fresh ice — and on a sweet dish by Blake Coleman — for his 200th goal. After a beautiful behind-the-back feed from Coleman, this was an easy finish.
A crease-crashing Pospisil padded the lead, polishing off a pass from Huberdeau, before Cole Caufield put the Habs on the board with a laser-beam one-timer on an odd-man rush. Wolf seemed to be anticipating the pass, but the rookie netminder couldn’t quite reach a puck that sizzled just inside the post on the blocker side.
While the Canadiens scratched back another prior to the second intermission, with David Savard sneaking a shot through traffic from the blue-line, the Flames weren’t going to let this one slip from their grasp.
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With the hosts on the man-advantage, Huberdeau spied Kadri at the back-door and left his buddy with a tap-in thanks to a brilliant cross-seem setup.
Miromanov continued to flash his offensive upside by burying a rebound for his second goal in five games so far in the Flaming C logo.
ICE CHIPS: Great news — on ’80s Night at the Saddledome, franchise icon Lanny McDonald was watching the action alongside several of his former teammates. McDonald suffered a cardiac event in early February but told Sportsnet that he is “feeling great.” Spotlighted on the video screen, he received a standing ovation during an early commercial break … The Flames welcomed back rugged winger A.J. Greer, who’d missed the past six-plus weeks due to a fractured foot. Andrei Kuzmenko also returned after a two-game absence due to an upper-body injury. That leaves only Jacob Markstrom (lower-body) and Connor Zary (upper-body) in the infirmary … The Canadiens announced about an hour before puck-drop that coach Martin St. Louis will be away from the team indefinitely due to family reasons … The Flames will wrap this four-game homestand with Monday’s matchup against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals (6:30 pm MT, Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan) …
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