Flames rebound to beat Blue Jackets
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- One night after letting one slip away, the Calgary Flames put their fists down.
Jiri Hudler and Curtis Glencross scored only 42 seconds apart late in the third period, and the Flames earned their first win of the season, beating Columbus 4-3 before a sold-out crowd of 18,151 in Nationwide Arena.
Sean Monahan, part of a youth movement in Calgary, scored the first goal of his NHL career in his second game. T.J. Galiardi also scored.
"We have to be resilient," Hudler said. "I thought tonight was a great game, great effort. We held on at the end. But it didn't feel like holding on because I thought we played smart with the lead."
The Flames, who blew a 4-1 lead and lost 5-4 in overtime Friday in Washington, nearly let another slip away, but survived a frantic final few minutes.
The Blue Jackets pulled to 4-3 on a goal by Artem Anisimov with 4:13 to play, and Columbus spent much of the rest of the game in the Flames zone.
But Flames goaltender Joey MacDonald did not relent. He finished with 29 saves on 32 shots.
"It's not every complicated," Flames coach Bob Hartley said. "Our recipe right now is, we're going to work, play with passion. Guys are blocking shots, they're driving to the net ... we're a team now."
The Blue Jackets also got goals from Jack Johnson and Marian Gaborik, but they never led and never played the button-down defensive style that brought them so much success last season.
"I think the speed of the game caught some guys off guard," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "The Flames countered really well. They work extremely hard. You've got to give them credit. There were times when we'd just pick our head up and somebody would be there."
Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 30 shots, but did not look nearly as sharp as he did most of last season when he won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender.
The Flames took a 1-0 lead only 2:27 into the game, scoring on the third shot of the game.
Lee Stempniak's shot from the high slot was stopped by Bobrovsky, but sat on the doorstep long enough for Monahan, the Flames' sixth overall pick last June, to jab it into the net.
The Blue Jackets' much-maligned power play -- it was 28th in the league last season -- made it 1-1 at 5:57 of the first period. Marian Gaborik made a slick pass across the zone to Johnson, who dropped low to one knee in the right circle to blast it home.
The lead didn't live for even two minutes, though.
Calgary's T.J. Galiardi stepped in front of a poorly-timed pass by Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Murray and carried it the length of the ice, beating Bobrovsky with a nifty roofer off his backhand from close range.
Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards, clearly unhappy with the space and speed the Flames were able to generate, began swirling his forward lines midway through the first.
It paid instant dividends, with Gaborik finishing a rush with Brandon Dubinsky and Blake Comeau.
NOTES: The Flames announced just before faceoff that forward Matt Stajan is out indefinitely with a leg contusion. Stajan played more than 22 minutes in Thursday's 5-4 loss to Washington. ... Center Joe Colborne, who was acquired from Toronto for a fourth-round pick last week, made his Flames debut, taking Stajan's spot. ... The Blue Jackets started the season without defenseman Fedor Tyutin (lower body) and right winger Jared Boll (upper body). Both are unlikely to play Saturday against the New York Islanders. ... Two rookies made their NHL debuts for the Blue Jackets: left winger Boone Jenner and defenseman Ryan Murray. ... Golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who grew up in nearby Upper Arlington, dropped the ceremonial first puck before last night's game. Nicklaus resides in Florida but is back home for this weekend's Presidents Cup, taking place at the course he founded -- Muirfield Village Golf Club -- in Dublin, Ohio.
