Matt Coronato scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 1:57 remaining in the first period as the Calgary Flames dominated play throughout Tuesday night and earned a 2-1 victory over the host New York Rangers.
A New York native, Coronato scored nearly eight minutes after Nazem Kadri scored the tying goal as the Flames bounced back nicely after arriving at 2 a.m. from their 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the night before.
MacKenzie Weegar collected two assists and Kadri added an assist for Calgary (31-25-11, 73 points), which ended the game with the same points total as the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues. The Canucks were hosting the Winnipeg Jets later Tuesday while the Blues were visiting the Nashville Predators.
The Flames snapped a three-game losing streak, won for the third time in their past 10 games (3-4-3), forced 20 giveaways and had significantly more scoring chances against New York goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Artemi Panarin reached 30 goals for the fifth time in his career early in the first period, but the Rangers (33-30-6, 72 points) struggled offensively all night and ended the night one point behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card spot.
Calgary’s Dan Vladar made 12 saves as the Rangers were held to their second-fewest shots on goal this season.
The Rangers missed the net 22 times and saw their forwards combine for six shots on goal.
Shesterkin made 33 saves to keep the Rangers in the game when they were lax defensively throughout. He stopped Jonathan Huberdeau five times and made four stops on Coronato.
After Panarin opened the scoring by finishing off a 2-on-1 with Will Cuylle in the lower edge of the right circle 73 seconds in, the Flames dominated the rest of the game.
Kadri tied it with 9:38 remaining by walking into a rebound and easily scoring from the right slot after Shesterkin stopped Weegar’s backhander.
After an elbowing penalty by Matt Rempe, the Flames took a 2-1 lead 17 seconds into the man advantage after Coronato won a faceoff from J.T. Miller. Calgary made two passes to get it back to Coronato, who had plenty of room to turn around in the middle of the slot and lift a wrist shot over Shesterkin’s glove inside the right post.
