Mikael Backlund scored the deciding goal on penalties as the Calgary Flames overcame a lead late in the third period to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Monday.
Backlund, Calgary’s seventh shooter, stormed down the right side and fired into the top corner of Tristan Jarry.
Jacob Markstrom sealed the win by stopping Brock McGinn in Pittsburgh’s final shootout attempt, with the Flames goalie shaking his fist as his teammates spilled onto the boards to celebrate Calgary’s second win in overtime.
Milan Lucic scored in regulation for Calgary (13-4-5), which has points in eight of its last nine (6-1-2). Markstrom had 21 saves to improve his record to 9-4-4.
Jake Guentzel scored for Pittsburgh (10-7-5), while Jarry made 31 saves but lowered his record to 10-4-4.
Johnny Gaudreau and Kris Letang also scored on penalties for Calgary. Guentzel sounded a shot off the crossbar.
Just like during regulation, Calgary had the best chances to score in overtime. On one occasion, Gaudreau hit the crossbar. Then, in a two-on-one, Jarry hit a low shot that looked like the winner of the game.
Trailing 1-0, the Penguins tied at 12:35 of the third period quickly converting the first power game of the night for both teams.
With Backlund in the interference penalty area after he dropped Even Rodrigues to the side of the Flames net, Pittsburgh needed just seven seconds to tie it against the second-best penalty unit in the NHL.
Sidney Crosby won the showdown and retrieving Letang’s puck, his attempt to pass diagonally through the Calgary slot was redirected by Guentzel and past Markstrom.
The power play goal extended Guentzel’s scoring streak to 10 games. He has also scored at least one point in the Penguins’ 10 road games this season.
The Flames entered the game having annihilated 26 of the previous 27 penalties.
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Calgary didn’t get a chance to play with power, which would have pitted them against the NHL’s No. 1 penalty shootout team.
Approaching the midpoint of the second period and with the game scoreless despite Calgary producing the majority of scoring opportunities, the Flames finally broke through against Jarry.
Oliver Kylington’s long pass through the side plates was neatly cut by Lucic beyond the tight coverage of defender Chad Ruhwedel. When he recovered the puck and stormed into the Penguins end with chants of “Looooch” from the Saddledome crowd, he broke his sixth goal of the season through Jarry’s pads.
Until that moment, the Flames had done everything but score.
Gaudreau and Trevor Lewis hit the goal posts. Andrew Mangiapane blew into a Blake Coleman cross feed with one side open to fire the puck.
Backlund and Lindholm put up dangerous rebounding opportunities beyond the open nets.
The Flames open a four-game road trip in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Calgary forward Andrew Mangiapane played in his 200th career game, as did Pittsburgh forward Dominik Simon.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca