Lindholm reaches 40-goal mark to help Flames double Canucks | CBC Sports

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Dillon Dube scored twice and Elias Lindholm scored his 40th goal to lead the Calgary Flames to a 6-3 victory over Vancouver on Saturday night, reducing the visiting Canucks’ playoff hopes to just the blink of an eye.

Brett Ritchie, Nikita Zadorov and Johnny Gaudreau, with an empty net, also scored for Calgary (49-20-10). The Flames, 9-1-1 in their last 11, have already clinched first place in the Pacific Division.

Quinn Hughes, Conor Garland and Emilio Pettersson scored the goals for Vancouver (38-30-11), which is losing both games on its two-game tour that began in Minnesota.

With three games remaining, the Canucks trail Nashville and Dallas in the Western Conference wild-card race by six points. Vegas, two points ahead of Vancouver, is another team they would have to move to.

With Jacob Markstrom having the night off and out of uniform, rookie Dan Vladar had the rare start at home, just his third start at the Saddledome all season. He made 28 stops to improve to 12-5-2.

At the other end, Thatcher Demko had 25 saves. Drops to 33-22-7.

WATCH the Dube scores a pair as the Flames beat the Canucks:

Flames topple Canucks as Dube’s 2 goals lead the way

Vancouver loses its third straight game and suffers another blow to its playoff aspirations with a 6-3 loss to Calgary. 0:58

After a scoreless and penalty-free first period, the Flames took the lead at 2:44 of the second period with a power-play goal.

Lindholm, who was hit by a high post from Canucks rookie forward William Lockwood to attract the penalty, hit a perfect shot into the top corner after being assisted by Johnny Gaudreau.

Lindholm’s 40th goal comes one game after linemate Matthew Tkachuk reached the same number.

It is the first time Calgary has had multiple 40-goal scorers in a season since 1993-94 when Gary Roberts (41), Theo Fleury (40) and Robert Reichel (40) accomplished the feat.

Lindholm, whose career best had been 29 in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, had been stuck at 39 for the last three games.

Stolen on three glorious chances on Thursday and thwarted on another dangerous first-half chance on Saturday, Lindholm’s gaze heavenward as the goal’s red light came on showed his relief.

With the Saddledome still buzzing, the Flames scored again 16 seconds later, Dube hitting a centered pass from Jarnkrok Street.

After Hughes’ goal at 18:44 of the second cut the deficit to one, Garland got the Canucks back at 5:36 of the third period when he hit Tyler Myers’ crossover pass out of the air and into the post.

But he was only tied for 14 seconds with Calgary’s fourth row producing the go-ahead goal. Chris Tanev’s point shot deflected off Ritchie’s skate as he pushed forward with Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Calgary then put the game away, breaking out for two goals 12 seconds apart.

At 13:33, Dube dove off the wing and beat Demko with a backhand into the top corner. That was followed by a Zadorov punch that screeched through Demko’s pads.

Dube’s 16th goal of the season and sixth in his last six games ended with the game-winner when Pettersson scored for Vancouver at 17:32 to make it 5-3.



Reference-www.cbc.ca

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