Flames, Gaudreau stay hot
WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnny Gaudreau would rather talk about anything other than his offensive production. He’s just making it impossible to avoid.
Gaudreau had a goal and an assist to extend his careerbest point streak to 10 games and lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Monday night.
Gaudreau, nicknamed “Johnny Hockey,” now has eight goals and 11 assists, and the Flames are 7-3-0 in that time.
“It’s cool,” Gaudreau said. “Coming into games, we’re excited to find a way to find the net there. It’s an exciting time right now. We’re playing well. But you go through ups and downs throughout the season and right now it’s going well for us, so hopefully we can keep this going.”
Gaudreau scored and then assisted on Sean Monahan’s goal — one of two on the power play for Calgary, which has won four of its past five.
Mikael Backlund and captain Mark Giordano also scored for the Flames, who got 29 saves from Mike Smith.
Monahan had a goal and an assist after a power-play hat trick in a comeback victory on Saturday at Philadelphia.
Calgary’s top line is clicking, and everyone knows Gaudreau is the catalyst.
“He’s making something happen every shift,” Monahan said. “To be able to play on his line, it’s a lot of fun right now. That confidence is hard to take away from a guy like that, so he’s going to continue to do that.”
Coach Glen Gulutzan sees confidence oozing from the 5-foot-9 winger, but Gaudreau’s play in the defensive zone also stood out.
“What a coach likes more is his backcheck on (Alex Ovechkin) that lifted the stick,” Gulutzan said. “His commitment to winning just shows itself night in, night out.”