Hanifin’s three points leads Flames over Devils
Noah Hanifin had a goal and two assists on Thursday, and the Calgary Flames scored four times in the second period en route to a 52 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
It’s Hanifin’s first three-point game as a Flame and the fourth of his career.
Derek Ryan, Mikael Backlund, Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for Calgary (10-7-2). Elias Lindholm had an assist to extend his point streak to nine games (5-6-11).
The Flames won their second straight to open a fourgame homestand and improved to 6-1-1 on the season at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist to lead the offence for New Jersey (4-6-4). Nikita Gusev also scored while Taylor Hall had an assist to extend his points streak to seven (1-8-9).
The Devils fell to 2-1-0 on a five-game road trip, which continues tonight in Edmonton.
David Rittich made 21 stops to earn the win. Mackenzie Blackwood, peppered with 38 shots, suffered the loss.
Hanifin’s points came on three consecutive goals after Gusev had given the Devils a 2-1 lead at 5:21 of the second.
On the tying goal, Hanifin showed patience and poise in carrying the puck from the blue-line along the sideboards, then around the back of the net, before centring a perfect pass to Monahan, who one-timed his fourth of the season. It was just the second goal in 17 games for the perennial 30goal scorer.
The go-ahead goal from Backlund at 14:53 on the power play was a fluke. His centring pass was accidentally deflected into his own net by Devils captain Andy Greene.
The Flames power play struck again with 14 seconds left in the second period. Hanifin’s shot from the blueline beat Blackwood, who was screened by Milan Lucic.
Gaudreau put the game away in the third, getting behind Matt Tennyson and scoring on a nice backhand.