Smith helps Flames solve Oilers
CALGARY — After challenging his team to be better, Mike Smith went out and led by example.
Smith made 28 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and Johnny Gaudreau had the only goal as the Calgary Flames edged the Edmonton Oilers 1-0 on Tuesday night, ending a seven-game losing streak against their provincial rival.
“Smitty is a real, fiery competitive guy,” said coach Glen Gulutzan. “If you’re a guy like him and you’re competitive, you’re going to say things and you want things, and it’s going to be good for our group that he’s backing them up.”
After practice on Monday with the team reeling from Sunday’s disappointing 5-2 setback to the New York Islanders, Smith was vocal about how everyone had to step it up.
“It starts with your play on the ice. It’s hard to talk in the room and to [the media] when you don’t go out there and do your job,” Smith said. “It starts with yourself, taking care of what you can control.”
The commitment to preserving the one-goal lead was especially evident in the final minute. With Edmonton on a power play and goaltender Cam Talbot pulled to make it a 6-on-4, Troy Brouwer, Matt Stajan and Michael Frolik all blocked shots.
“To see guys lying down, blocking shots, guys getting over the red or the blue and dumping pucks in. We had one-goal lead and we were riding our goalie and we felt that we didn’t need to win the game 5-0,” said Flames defenceman Travis Hamonic. “We know that come playoff games, this is how you win games.”
It was a superb bounce-back performance for Smith in his second game after missing a month with a lower-body injury. He had been beaten four times on 26 shots on Sunday.
“He’s one of our leaders and sometimes when you put yourself out there and say those things, you know you’re going to follow it up with a good game yourself and everyone’s going to follow suit,” said Hamonic.
Calgary (35-26-10) remains within two points of both Dallas and Colorado, who occupy the two wild card spots in the Western Conference.
Cam Talbot made 31 saves as Edmonton (30-35-4) had its threegame win streak snapped.
Canadiens 4, Stars 2
MONTREAL — Artturi Lehkonen scored twice as the Montreal Canadiens snapped their fivegame losing skid with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Dallas Stars.
Brendan Gallagher and Nikita Scherbak also scored for Montreal (26-32-12), which had not won since Mar. 2. Alex Galchenyuk had two assists.
Radek Faksa and Jamie Benn scored for Dallas (38-26-6).