Yegor Sharangovich’s second goal of the game with 50 seconds remaining in regulation completed the comeback as the host Calgary Flames claimed a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman scored goals 32 seconds apart and Mikael Backlund collected two assists as the Flames erased a 3-1 third-period deficit to earn their first five-game winning streak of the season.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves on a night the Flames retired No. 34 in honor of goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, the franchise record holder in nearly every netminding category.
With his team trailing by two, Kadri made it a one-goal game at 10:09 of the third period by going coast to coast before zipping around Kris Letang and tucking home the puck for his 22nd of the campaign.
Coleman tied the score moments later when he finished an excellent forechecking series with a bullet from the slot set up by Andrew Mangiapane for his team-high 25th of the season.
Just as it appeared the game was headed to overtime, Backlund stole the puck along the boards, drove to the net and dropped a pass to Sharangovich to bury his 23rd goal of the season.
Jonathan Gruden, who tallied his first NHL goal, Lars Eller and Jeff Carter scored for the Penguins, who have dropped two straight. Goaltender Tristan Jarry stopped 16 shots.
Gruden, a 2018 fourth-round draft choice, made his ninth NHL game one to remember when he opened the scoring at 16:42. From a sharp angle, Gruden fired a shot that somehow squeezed between Markstrom and the near post for the milestone marker.
Eller’s power-play goal doubled the lead with 34 seconds remaining in the one-sided first period in which the Penguins had a 14-3 edge in shots. Valtteri Puustinen’s redirect attempt from the slot went up into the air and Eller batted the puck near the crossbar and into the cage for his 12th of the campaign.
Sharangovich put the Flames on the board 3:37 into the second period when he chipped a loose puck by a defender and converted on the ensuing partial breakaway. Carter restored Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead 2:51 into the third period by deflecting a Ryan Graves point shot for his seventh goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
