Hamilton scores twice, Flames win 7th in row

The Calgary Flames are going so well, they are rolling to easy victories even without their top scorer.

Dougie Hamilton scored twice, Mike Smith made 38 saves and the Flames ran their winning streak to seven straight with a 4-1 victory at Carolina on Sunday.

Sean Monahan leads the Flames with 21 goals, but was out because of the flu. Calgary still controlled the game.

Matt Stajan opened the scoring at 6:01 of the first period with his first goal of the season.

Hamilton made it 2-0 later in the first period. He scored again early in the third for his first multigoal game of the season, and Matthew Tkachuk added an insurance goal late. Johnny Gaudreau had two assists to extend his point streak to seven games.

“We’re feeling good right now, obviously,” Hamilton said. “We’re doing the little things consistent and we haven’t really had a terrible stretch of hockey yet.”

Scott Darling made 26 saves for Carolina, which has lost four of five. Lee Stempniak scored with 4:31 remaining to avoid a shutout.

Calgary captain Mark Giordano was ejected after receiving a match penalty early in the third period for a check to the head. He threw his shoulder into the face of Sebastian Aho, who was preparing to shoot. Aho remained down on the ice for several minutes, had to be helped off and didn’t return.

“Obviously there was some head contact. I don’t know if there was much intent,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “I thought (Giordano’s) arm was tucked in low but he ended up catching the head and that’s unfortunate.”