Elliott gets Flames back on track
CALGARY — Mark Giordano had a goal and two assists and Brian Elliott won his 10th game in a row as the Calgary Flames got back in the win column with a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday.
Home with the flu on Wednesday when the Flames had their 10-game winning streak snapped by the Boston Bruins, Elliott was good to go once again and he was nearly perfect on 25 shots faced.
Elliott’s busiest period was the second when Dallas outshot Calgary 13-10 but got outscored 2-0.
Bidding for his third shutout in four games, Elliott was finally beaten at 13:19 of the third when TJ Brodie mishandled the puck in front of his net and Brett Ritchie whipped it past the surprised goaltender.
Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik also scored for Calgary (4027-4). The Flames, who are 12-1-1 in their last 14, jumped the Edmonton Oilers to move into third place in the Pacific Division.
In a disappointing season, Dallas (28-33-10) wrapped up its fourgame road trip with just one win. Noticeably absent for the Stars was captain Jamie Benn (upper body), who was hurt Thursday in Vancouver. Benn has been lethal at the Saddledome with 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists) in his last seven games in Calgary.
Calgary made it 2-0 at 5:20 of the second. After a stretch of prolonged pressure in the Stars end, Tkachuk neatly steered Giordano’s pass behind Kari Lehtonen for his 13th goal.
Three minutes later, Calgary scored again on a heads-up play by Tkachuk. Having knocked the puck out of the air with a high stick seconds earlier, the Flames rookie followed the puck into the Stars zone but didn’t touch it as play would have been blown dead.
As soon as Dallas’ Adam Cracknell tried to play the puck, Tkachuk promptly stripped it from him, knocking it back to Giordano, who flung a harmless-looking shot from just inside the blue line that deflected in off the glove of Dallas defenceman Dan Hamhuis.
Penguins 6, Devils 4
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby scored twice to move into a tie for the NHL lead with 37, Carter Rowney added the first goal of his NHL career and the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 6-4 on Friday night.
Crosby added an assist to give him 640 in his career and move him into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for the second-most in franchise history. Nick Bonino, Jake Guentzel and Phil Kessel also scored for Pittsburgh as the Penguins leapfrogged Columbus to move into second-place.