Connor Brown scored twice and Josh Norris collected one goal and one assist to lead the visiting Ottawa Senators to a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Brady Tkachuk also scored for the Senators, who received a 26-save performance from goaltender Matt Murray to win a second straight game. Norris is riding a five-game point streak, a stretch with three goals and eight points.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped 16 shots, while Elias Lindholm and Michael Stone replied for the Flames, who have lost two straight and are running out of chances to push for a playoff spot. Calgary’s position can be attributed to a dreadful record against the Senators, who have won six of eight games against the Flames despite sitting last in the North Division.
Calgary remains six points back of the Montreal Canadiens for fourth spot in the division with 11 games remaining. The Flames and Canadiens meet three straight times in Calgary starting on Friday.
With the score tied 1-1, Brown’s short-handed goal with 56 seconds remaining in the second period was the clutch go-ahead marker. Brown intercepted Noah Hanifin’s pass inside his own zone to create a two-on-one rush that he finished by burying a rebound.
Then, after the Flames failed to convert a pair of early third-period power plays, Norris ripped a glove-side shot at 7:52 of the third period for a man-advantage marker that became the game winner.
Stone made it a one-goal game with a rocket of a point shot, a play set up by Milan Lucic’s forecheck, with 9:13 remaining in regulation, but the Flames couldn’t find the equalizer before Brown notched an empty-net goal with 95 seconds remaining.
The clubs traded goals in the middle of the first period. Tkachuk took advantage of a glaring giveaway by rookie defenseman Juuso Valimaki to open the scoring at the 9:50 mark, but Lindholm replied 93 seconds later with a rebound tally to extend his point streak to six games in which he’s collected four goals and eight points.
Captain Mark Giordano collected his 506th point with an assist, which moved him ahead of Gary Roberts for eighth spot on the franchise’s all-time list behind Jarome Iginla, Theoren Fleury, Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Suter, Kent Nilsson and Guy Chouinard.
–Field Level Media