5 THINGS - FLAMES @ BLUE JACKETS

FLAMES (19-12-6) @ BLUE JACKETS (18-20-1)

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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Alanna Nolan
Pregame Interviews
GAME DAY FEATURES
Tkachuk in Rarified Air
Projected Lineup
Say What - 'We're All Playing Together'
STAT PACK
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Johnny Gaudreau (48)
Goals - Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane (18)
Blue Jackets:
Points - Boone Jenner (27)
Goals - Jenner (16)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 23.9% (11th) / PK - 83.5% (7th)
Blue Jackets:
PP - 15.0% (28th) / PK - 79.7% (18th)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 54.32% (3rd)
High-Danger Chances: 55.04% (4th)
Blue Jackets:
Shot Attempts: 41.91% (21st)
High-Danger Chances: 43.91% (30th)

1. LAST TIME OUT

Statement game?
You could call it that. One thing's for sure, it was impressive to watch.
After falling 5-3 to the Oilers Saturday night and having lost two of their last three games, the Flames faced a stiff test when the surging Blues paid the Scotiabank Saddledome a visit on Monday night.
The Blues were one of the top teams in the west and rolled into the game 8-2-0 in their last 10 outings, outmuscling, outskating and outscoring the opposition on a regular basis during that run.
St. Louis jumped out a 1-0 lead before the Flames rattled off seven straight goals (three in the first and four in the second) for a dominating victory.
Johnny Gaudreau (1g, 3a) and Matthew Tkachuk led the way offensively (5a), but it was the definition of a balanced attack with seven different players lighting the lamp, including Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev, Elias Lindholm, Blake Coleman, Sean Monahan and Adam Ruzicka.
They dominated in shots, 48-21, and high-danger scoring chances, 18-4.
They won the special teams battle, going 2-for-5 on the powerplay while blanking the Blues on their two man-ups.
Up and down the roster, it was a full team effort right across the board.
"I thought our powerplay scored the goals that end up making the difference in the game," said head coach Darryl Sutter. "I think our second period was really solid, we didn't give them much. That's a big improvement on our last game. The bottom line is, we have to check to win. Tonight, two goals was enough to win and that's the way you've got to play."
The trio of Gaudreau, Tkachuk and centre Elias Lindholm continue to be one of the top lines in the league, at both ends of the ice, pacing the Calgary attack and setting the tempo for the style of fast, aggressive, tight-checking play Sutter is looking for from his club.
"We all see the ice really well," said Gaudreau. "We're good buddies off the ice, good chemistry practicing as well. It makes it a lot easier coming to the rink. We're finding a lot of chemistry to start the season and we're just going to build and build and build off it. We're getting rewarded and hopefully we can keep playing this way."

2. KNOW YOUR ENEMY

It's been a rough patch for the Jackets.
And they just can't catch a break.
Columbus is 3-7-0 in their last 10 outings and have lost two straight, most recently a 2-1 home loss to the Ottawa thanks, in large part, to Sens netminder Anton Forsberg's heroics as he made 35 saves.
"We had some looks, a couple of breakaways and didn't capitalize," Columbus coach Brad Larsen told NHL.com's Craig Merz. "I thought it was a fairly even game. They had their looks, we had our looks. They just got the extra one."
Sean Kuraly had the lone goal for the Jackets, while Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves between the pipes.
The Blue Jackets carried the third period but couldn't find the goal to knot things up.
"For one goal, we had a lot of scoring chances," said Jakub Voracek, quoted by Bailey Johnson in the Columbus Dispatch's game story. "We've gotta get better at that. Sometimes you have games like that, when nothing goes in, but we've scored five goals over our last three games. We've gotta get better."
Larsen said the first step to creating more offence and finding some much-needed goals is simple.
"I want to see more shooting from our team," he said. "That's the one thing we talked about in the second period is playing more direct, funneling pucks. We have two plays at the beginning of the third period, we get right down to the goal mouth there and we don't even get a chance. We're trying to tic-tac-toe it in.
"We're not there right now. That's not how we're gonna score goals. We needed to generate more shots when those opportunities came and that's something I believe we didn't do."

3. FAST FACTS

MILESTONE MADNESS:Elias Lindholm recorded a goal on Monday, giving him 399 career points and one shy of the 400 mark. Lindholm has points in three straight games coming into tonight and four points in his last five games. ... Andrew Mangiapane sits a point away from 100 in his career. Mangiapane is tied for the team lead in goals this season with 18, 17 of which have come on the road.
STAT STUFFERS:The Flames this season are 14-5-3 when scoring the first goal of the game, 9-4-2 on the road and 5-1-1 at home. When taking the lead into the final frame, Calgary is 17-0-1 and 12-0-0 on the road when leading after two. The Flames have outscored their opposition 42-24 in the first period of hockey games and have outshot their opponents 454-366 in second periods.
DID YOU KNOW?:Keith Tkachuk had five assists on Feb. 23, 2001 for the Arizona Coyotes and Matthew Tkachuk had five assists on Monday for the Flames. They join Gordie and Mark Howe as the only father-son duos in NHL history to each have a five-assist game.

4. PLAYERS TO WATCH

Flames -Johnny Gaudreau
Pretty hard not to go with the hothand.
Gaudreau was stellar in Monday's 7-1 win, collecting his aforementioned goal and three helpers. The four points vaulted him into ninth in league scoring when he woke up Tuesday morning, his 16 goals and 48 points one better than San Jose's Timo Meier, and one back of Colorado's Mikko Rantanen and Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov. The offensive dynamo has eight assists in his last four games.
Blue Jackets -Boone Jenner
Jenner went into the tilt with Ottawa having notched four goals and seven points in a six-game point streak. He leads the team with 16 goals and is tied for the tops in points with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jakub Voracek. The veteran centre will be looking to start up a fresh scoring streak tonight.

5. QUOTABLE

Darryl Sutter when asked about Tkachuk's play-making ability following his five assists vs. the Blues:
"I've said this lots: Matthew's got great vision when he's got the puck and playing on his off wing this year gives him a whole different dynamic of what he can see and what he can do, and he's making the most of it."