Killer night for special teamers

Flames win despite penalty

He was first star, cowboy hat collector and even provided an assist.

Most important of all, Brian Elliott stole two points for the Calgary Flames in Wednesday’s 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Saddledome.

“He was dialed in all night long. Right to the bitter end, he was making saves,” praised Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan after Elliott’s 33-save performance. “We weren’t very good as a group of our skaters. But this is a game our goalie won us.

“We talked about how when you’re trying to get out of something or you’re trying to get some momentum, it’s your goalie that can change things for you. And our guy did tonight. We weren’t that great — we have some things we have to zip up — but I thought (goaltending) was No. 1 and special teams was No. 2. I thought our penalty kill was really good.”

The Flyers won’t be thrilled with their power play, but Elliott kicked aside six shots while the visitors were on the man advantage.

He should be enjoying a complimentary meal or two courtesy of right-winger Alex Chiasson, whose boneheaded spearing major — he jabbed centre Nick Cousins in the gut after a whistle — in the opening stanza could have proved much more costly.

Shortly after Chiasson was banished, things turned from bad to worse when Sean Monahan whistled a shot from inside his own blue-line that sailed over the glass at the far end to gift the Flyers a full two minutes of five-on-three, but the out-of-towners couldn’t cash in on the twoman advantage.

Just as Chiasson’s headshaker was expiring, Elliott stretched out to steal a goal from Cousins with his trapper.

Matthew Tkachuk scored in the first, TJ Brodie in the second and captain Mark Giordano added an emptynetter in the final minute as the Flames (29-26-3) rebounded from Monday’s 5-0 clocking from the Arizona Coyotes and climbed back into a wild-card slot in the Western Conference standings. The Los Angeles Kings are just one point back and have three games in hand.

“Thank God we had Moose back there,” Tkachuk said. “We didn’t really play as strong as we could in front of him ... To weather the storm in the first, our penalty-kill and Moose really got us through it.”

All told, the Flames were unscathed on four penaltykill scenarios.

The Flames won’t be spotted at the Saddledome until the end of this month. Saturday’s clash with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena (8 p.m., CBC/ Sportsnet 960 The Fan) marks their first of five consecutive road dates.