Flames sear the Sens

Andrew Mangiapane, Garnet Hathaway and Matthew Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for the Calgary Flames in a 5-1 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

Captain Mark Giordano scored Calgary’s league-leading 18th short-handed goal and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames (46-21-7). Derek Ryan assisted on a pair of goals.

Mike Smith made 18 saves for the win in a game pitting the top team in the NHL’s Western Conference against the East’s basement-dwellers.

Dylan DeMelo countered for the Senators (25-43-6). Craig Anderson turned away 31 shots in the loss.

Ottawa dropped to 3-6-1 since head coach Guy Boucher was sacked and Marc Crawford took over March 1.

Calgary opened up a sixpoint gap on San Jose atop the Pacific Division, but the Sharks had a chance to shrink it later Thursday in Los Angeles against the Kings.

Both the Flames and Sharks clinched playoff berths earlier this week.

The Senators played their second road game in as many nights following a 7-4 loss to Vancouver, where they’d scored all four goals in the last 11 minutes of the game.

Thursday’s game featured another Tkachuk brother battle for Calgary’s Matthew and younger sibling Brady of the Senators.

Matthew tipped in a Michael Frolik feed at 18:33 of the third.

The Tkchuk siblings tangled in the corner in the third period, when Matthew emerged with the puck to collect an assist on Backlund’s goal at 11:23.

Smith stoned an all-alone Brady from close range midway through the third period.

Backlund scored his 20th of the season beating Anderson glove side.

Flames fourth-liners Ryan, Hathaway and Mangiapane produced Calgary’s second and third goals of the game.

Mangiapane wristed Ryan’s cross-ice pass over Anderson’s glove at the nine-minute mark of the second period.

The trio capitalized on an Ottawa turnover in Calgary’s zone rushing the puck up ice for Hathaway to finish with a tap-in at 11:15 of the first period.

Ryan collected his 100th career point with his first of two assists.