Flames down Sharks, continue to beat up on Pacific Division
The Calgary Flames responded to a potential momentum-shifiting, last-second goal in the second period with a typical strong third to earn another win against the San Jose Sharks.
Jiri Hudler scored a power-play goal for his fifth goal of the season against San Jose, and the Flames overcame the bad break at the end of the second to beat the Sharks 4-1 on Monday night for their fourth win in five games.
"We did a great job regrouping," said Lance Bouma, who had a goal and an assist. "The guys were really positive, and we knew if we stuck with it and played our game and played like we always do in the third period that we'd have a good chance. We did a good job."
Mason Raymond and David Jones also scored for the Flames, who won four of five meetings this season against San Jose to move ahead of the Sharks into second place in the Pacific Division. Jonas Hiller made 33 saves as Calgary improved to 17-4-1 against the division.
Brent Burns scored the lone goal for the Sharks but also committed the penalty that led to Hudler's power-play goal in the third period that helped seal the game for the Flames. Antti Niemi made 22 saves for the Sharks, who have lost four of five.
"They came into our building three times and won," coach Todd McLellan said. "It was pretty much a carbon copy -- low scoring. One goal is not going to beat them."
After giving the Sharks some momentum with his goal in the final second of the second period, Burns helped turn the game back toward the Flames when he was called for roughing early in the third.
Late on the power play after Andrew Desjardins and Scott Hannan failed to clear the puck, Johnny Gaudreau fed Hudler in the slot for the goal that made it 3-1. Hudler became the first player since Corey Perry in 2010-11 to score five times against the Sharks in one season.
"We kept our composure, and then the power play came up huge," captain Mark Giordano said. "That third one's a huge goal, obviously."
Jones added an empty-net goal as Calgary maintained its perfect record when leading after two periods. The Flames are 14-0-0 in those situations, including three wins against San Jose.
"I felt that we were on our toes," coach Bob Hartley said. "We didn't let them gain momentum in the third period. Our power play gave us that big third goal which was huge for us. After this we just kind of closed down the play."
The Sharks fell behind 2-0 midway through the second when Bouma beat Mirco Mueller to the rebound of Giordano's shot and backhanded it past Niemi.
The Flames had chances to add to the lead but Matt Tennyson broke up a pair of odd-man rushes, and then the Sharks finally got on the board late in the period.
Joe Pavelski beat Sean Monahan on an offensive zone faceoff with 3.1 seconds to play. Logan Couture got the puck back to the point to Burns, who beat Hiller to make it 2-1 with 0.9 seconds left.
The Flames controlled the play in the first period and scored first for the fifth time in as many meetings against the Sharks this season.
After the Sharks took more than 1 minute to touch the puck on a delayed penalty and killed off the 2-minute infraction, Calgary got on the board when Raymond skated into the offensive zone and found an opening in the high slot to beat Niemi with a wrist shot.
NOTES: Sharks F Tommy Wingels returned for the first time since breaking his left hand on Jan. 19. ... F Curtis Glencross returned for the Flames after missing nine games with a hip injury. ... Flames F Paul Byron was scratched with an illness, and F David Wolf (leg) was activated from the injured list to take his place in the lineup. ... Sharks D Marc Edouard-Vlasic missed his second game with an upper-body injury.
