Mikael Backlund had two goals and an assist as the Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Friday night.
Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan also scored for the Flames, who lead the Pacific Division standings with 32 points, one ahead of the Anaheim Ducks. Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm each had two assists.
Goalie Mike Smith made 13 saves for his second straight win and improved to 7-7-1.
Adrian Kempe scored the Kings’ lone goal. Los Angeles lost its second straight and was coming off a 3-2 loss at Edmonton on Thursday.
After giving up an early goal, rookie Kings goalie Calvin Petersen finished with 33 saves.
Calgary opened the scoring 36 seconds into the first period when Backlund let a harmless-looking shot go from the top of the faceoff circle and beat Petersen over his left pad.
Although the Flames outshot Los Angeles 9-4 in the opening 20 minutes, they weren’t able to get any more pucks past Petersen, who slid across his crease to deny another scoring opportunity by Backlund with 1:24 remaining before the first intermission.
Less than a minute before Backlund’s late opportunity, Smith made a stick save to thwart a chance from the slot by forward Dustin Brown.
Gaudreau nearly put the Flames up 2-0 during an early power-play chance in the second period, but his shot from the slot rang off the crossbar.
The Kings pulled even at 13:41 of the second on a goal by Kempe, who scored off a pass from Austin Wagner from behind the net.
Gaudreau had another great chance to score late in the period when he made a couple moves behind the net before his wraparound attempt went along the goal line and off the far post.
Gaudreau then rang another puck off the post early in the third before finally backhanding a shot past Petersen during a Calgary man advantage, putting the Flames up by a goal.
Backlund and Monahan added a pair of empty-net goals in the final minute of the game to seal the victory.
NOTES: Lindholm played in his 400th NHL game. . L.A. forward Ilya Kovalchuk missed the game with an ankle injury. After recording five goals and nine assists in his first 14 games with the Kings, Kovalchuk hasn’t recorded a point in his last 11 outings.
UP NEXT
Kings: Home against Carolina on Sunday.
Flames: At Chicago on Sunday.
___
Source: The Associated Press
