Calgary’s Joel Farabee netted a tiebreaking short-handed goal in the third period, and the Flames broke a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the visiting San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
Morgan Frost notched a power-play goal and an assist and Matvei Gridin scored as the Flames won for the first time in six matches (1-3-2) and finished January with a 4-8-2 mark.
Dustin Wolf, who shut out San Jose in the season’s first meeting in Alberta on Nov. 13, stopped 23 shots as the Flames were victorious for the second time (2-1-0) in three meetings against their Pacific Division opponent.
Will Smith scored on the power play and Adam Gaudette also found the back of the net, but San Jose lost its second straight game and ended the month 7-5-1. Alex Nedeljkovic made 39 saves.
The Sharks did not waste much time in finally getting to Wolf on the Calgary ice.
On the match’s first power play after Brayden Pachal went off for interference, Alexander Wennberg made a great play against the boards keeping the puck in the offensive zone, patiently skated in close and fed a pass that Smith lifted in for his 16th goal at 3:11.
San Jose’s John Klingberg and Zack Ostapchuk took penalties, and Frost tallied at 14:44 on the 5-on-3 advantage when he potted a putback off Matt Coronato’s shot in a period in which the home side won the shot battle 15-11.
During a puck battle early in the second, the third line gave San Jose its second lead. William Eklund finally found Gaudette on multiple pass attempts, and the right wing sent home his 13th tally at 1:21.
However, Gridin knotted it for the second time by one-timing a missile from the top of the right circle at 6:59.
At 6:53 of the third, Calgary finally pulled ahead for the first time while on the penalty kill after Nazem Kadri’s slashing infraction. A blast by Mikael Backlund ricocheted off the end boards, and Farabee swatted it in backhanded for the go-ahead goal.
San Jose pulled Nedeljkovic, but the Flames held on to win at home for the first time since beating the New York Islanders 4-2 on Jan. 17.
–Field Level Media
