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Goalie again from harm to make 33 saves in house victory
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The fingers are simply nice.
The one which was fractured on the hand of Calgary Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom is best.
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And the various center ones raised by followers in a still-smarting salute to Matthew Tkachuk have been working nicely, too.
All totalled, they added as much as Markstrom and the Flames counting a 3-1 win over Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday night.
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“Feels good,” Markstrom advised reporters post-game after returning to the lineup from harm Sunday. “Clearly a giant win for us, and it was good to be again in there.
“Nevertheless it’s a giant win, particularly with ‘Chucky’ in there, too. It’s slightly bit extra particular.”
Certainly, it was Tkachuk’s second return to the Dome since being traded forward of the 2022-23 NHL season in a blockbuster deal that introduced each Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to the Flames.
However the night time additionally marked the return of Markstrom to the web after a hand harm took him out of the lineup for 2 weeks.
The ’tender got here off harm reserve Sunday, after being damage in follow in early December, and promptly made 33 saves within the victory — helped alongside by backhand targets from each Martin Pospisil and captain Mikael Backlund — over the visiting Panthers.
Markstrom’s finest save got here only a minute after Backlund scored the winner — short-handed — early within the third interval, getting his paddle down on a puck that acquired barely behind him to swat it away earlier than former teammate Sam Bennett may knock house the free puck. It got here seconds after Tkachuk fed the purpose for the shot that created the near-goal.
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And Markstrom was at it once more within the ultimate two minutes, when he turned away each Tkachuk and Bennett — on back-to-back probabilities within the goal-crease — throughout a power-play flurry by the Panthers to attempt to tie the sport.
As a substitute, the goalie and the Flames absorbed the late push and went the opposite approach for one more short-handed objective — this time Blake Coleman being awarded an empty-netter after he was tripped by Brandon Montour on a breakaway. It was Coleman’s tenth on the yr.
“It was good,” stated Markstrom of his finger. “Or else I wouldn’t have been on the market if I felt prefer it was going to have an effect on the play.
“You simply attempt to give attention to to not really feel a lot and simply give attention to the puck and never on how your physique feels. In order that was just about all I thought of the entire sport. It ended up being simple to dam (the finger) out and give attention to the puck.”
He additionally acquired huge assist from teammates promoting out and blocking probabilities, particularly late.
“I really feel like that’s nothing new for as we speak’s sport,” Markstrom stated. “It’s been like that each one yr. It’s inspiring, and it will get you going, for certain.”
The choice boosted the Flames to inside one sport of .500 at 13-14-5 and — extra importantly — one level again of the ultimate playoff spot within the Western Convention.
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In the meantime, the Cats, who’re firmly entrenched in an Jap Convention post-season place, dropped to 18-11-2.
Pospisil’s objective began the scoring 8:45 into the competition, when he flipped a slick backhand previous Panthers second-string goalie Anthony Stolarz. The objective got here off a Flames’ odd-man rush, with Pospisil protecting and scoring far aspect for his fourth of the season.
Thirty seconds earlier than the tip of the primary interval — and with only one second remaining in an influence play — the Panthers answered again on a objective by Sam Reinhart. The veteran jumped on a rebound in tight — after Tkachuk redirected Sasha Barkov’s shot — and fired the puck excessive over Markstrom.
However no one scored once more till the ultimate body, when Backlund raced away on one other Cats energy play, pulling away from Reinhart and freezing Stolarz with a nifty transfer earlier than shelving a depraved backhand. It was teammate Noah Hanifin with a fast transition move to the fast-breaking Backlund for his seventeenth profession short-handed tally — second-most in staff historical past — and seventh objective of any form on the marketing campaign.
“We battled onerous, and Marky was nice,” Backlund advised Sportsnet of his staff and the goalie that missed seven video games with the damaged digit.
“He stood on his head, particularly in that second interval, too,” added the captain. “He stored us within the sport. With out him, it wouldn’t have been a tie sport going into the third. He carried that (second-period efficiency) over into the third. So a giant comeback for him.”
The Flames, now with two straight wins and factors in every of the final 4 video games, subsequent play the host Anaheim Geese on Thursday night time in Southern California (8 p.m., Sportsnet West).
tsaelhof@postmedia.com
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