Flames finding swagger again after surging through arduous schedule

VEGAS — For those taking stock of how much they’ve improved themselves since the calendar flipped, consider what the Calgary Flames have accomplished of late.

In a 12-day span, they’ve played seven games in seven different cities, spanning four time zones and almost 10,000 km.

Despite the arduous schedule, they returned home from Sin City with a 5-2 record, capped by a 3-1 win Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, which had long been a House of Horrors for the Flames and just about every other visitor.

It’s just the second time they’ve ever won in Nevada in 11 tries.

After a rough start to this season, this club has swagger, depth and goaltending that has their chests puffed out in a fashion unseen in Calgary in over a year-and-a-half.

“We’re feeling it,” said Nazem Kadri, whose first period goal Saturday extended his point streak to six games.

“We’ve been really focusing in the second half of the year stepping it up and we feel like we can beat just about anybody if we are on our game. 

“We’re showing that of late, and we’ve beat a lot of good teams.”

No Flames skater has been strutting their stuff more of late than Blake Coleman, who opened the scoring midway through the first period with a power play goal that marked his seventh snipe in his last eight outings.

Two minutes later Nazem Kadri made it 2-0, setting the tone for a game and a team that has suddenly gone from being badly outscored in first periods to being savage out of the gate.

Having their dads along for this two-game roadie sure helped. 

“We’ve got a resilient team with a lot of guys stepping up, playing really good hockey – everybody is going right now,” said the Texas Tiger, as his father anointed him earlier in the trip, who has a remarkable 13 goals and 24 points in his last 18 games.

“It’s a great response these last three games after two tough road losses (in Philadelphia and Chicago) that could have set us back mentally. But everyone’s confidence is growing higher every day. With a six-game homestand looming here I think it’s a great opportunity, putting ourselves in a good spot for a good position.”

Indeed, this team continues to build momentum, coinciding with Jacob Markstrom’s red-hot play of late.

Markstrom and the Flames were under siege in a second period in which he made 10 of his 32 saves, stemming the tide until Mikael Backlund could make it 3-0 late in the frame by converting a breakaway set up by a perfect pass from Andrew Mangiapane.

Backlund immediately plucked the puck out of the Vegas net as a keepsake commemorating the 200^th NHL point for Mangiapane, whose game has rebounded since being reunited with Coleman and Backlund.

On a trip that saw Yegor Sharangovoich return with all three pucks scored in his first Flames hat trick in Thursday’s win in Tempe, Markstrom looked poised to record his second shutout until Chandler Stephenson scored midway through the third.

In the dying seconds of the game there was Markstrom and his teammates sprawling all over the ice, blocking shots as the netminder played without his catching glove at one point.

“That’s the kind of guy he is, he’s ultra competitive, he’s got a bare hand trying to make a glove save with five seconds left,” said Coleman of the veteran netminder who has won five of his last six starts.

“Not what we want to see, we’d like to have him keep his hand and keep playing for us, but it speaks to the kind of guy he is. He’s a big reason we won the game. He’s got that courage and that character that has been radiating through our team in front of him and that’s where it all starts.”

Sure, the three-game win streak the club is on was fuelled by the dads, who saw their sons bust their humps to do their pops’ proud. 

The dads, who flew back to Calgary with the team after Saturday’s win, will say their goodbyes Sunday and start trying to shed the weight they gained from a three-game stint tagging along in the Never Hungry League.

They saw a team determined to keep proving people wrong.

“We can’t go .500 anymore – we’ve got to try to make up ground and catch teams,” said Markstrom.

“This was a good trip and we’ve got to go home and charge our batteries and get back to work.”

The win over their division’s second-place team has the Flames two points out of the final wild-card spot, held by Edmonton. 

Ryan Huska has done well to give the players extra days’ rest throughout this stretch, and credited the players for never complaining about their rigorous travel adventures.

“We tried to get their energy level back up to where we felt like we needed to because it isn’t easy the way we’ve been traveling,” said Huska, whose club has outscored opponents 15-6 in their last three games.

“It wasn’t a picture-perfect game for us but this is not an easy place to win games in, even with some of the guys they’re missing from the lineup (namely Jack Eichel).

“Scoring early helped us again, and unfortunately we had to ride Marky. Fortunately he was awesome tonight.

“When you see him the way he’s been over the last little while you know not much is getting past him. He was excellent tonight.”

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