CALGARY — Matthew Tkachuk had an NHL career-high five assists for the Calgary Flames in a 7-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.
Tkachuk has scored 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in a five-game point streak.
“Matthew’s got great vision when he’s got the puck, and playing on his off-wing this year gives him a whole different dynamic of what he can see and what he can do, and he’s making the most of it,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said.
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and three assists, and Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan each scored for the Flames (19-12-6), who have won two of their past three games after losing four straight. Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves.
“We’re coming off a loss and they’re coming off a win, and I think we wanted it a little bit more tonight,” Gaudreau said.
Tyler Bozak scored for the Blues (25-12-5), who had won three in a row, including a 3-1 against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. Jordan Binnington allowed seven goals on 35 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by Ville Husso, who made 13 saves.
“This has to be a wake-up call for us and get back to our brand of hockey,” St. Louis captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “You look at the division and how tight it is and where we sit … It’s starting to get into the important time of the season and starting to get into that push for the playoffs. It’s time to get back to us. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Bozak made it 1-0 on St. Louis’ first shot of the game at 5:10 of the first period.
Nikita Zadorov scored 51 seconds later to tie it 1-1 on a wrist shot from inside the left face-off circle, and Christopher Tanev made it 2-1 at 12:46 off a centering pass from Gaudreau.
“We knew they were going to start aggressive and hard,” O’Reilly said. “They’re a very good team with a lot of skill that plays hard. Just right from the get-go, we were kind of on our heels and just kind of watching. Against a team like that, you just can’t do it. They took over the game. They dominated us from start to finish. That’s not us. That’s not our brand of hockey. That’s not Blues hockey.”
Lindholm extended the lead to 3-1 on the power play at 15:46 after another setup by Gaudreau, who has scored 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in a five-game point streak.
“[Gaudreau] made some great plays, was moving well,” Tkachuk said. “Obviously, him and ‘Lindy’ are very easy to play with, very easy to read off of. Seemed like tonight was one of those games where one of us would get the puck and the other two were working for space and getting open, and [we had] some nice plays out there and just a lot of time in their zone.”
Monahan scored on the power play 3:24 into the second period to make it 4-1 when he shot by Binnington’s blocker, and Blake Coleman pushed the lead to 5-1 at 14:11.
Adam Ruzicka extended it to 6-1 at 16:09 when he finished a three-way passing play with Tkachuk and Gaudreau, and Gaudreau made it 7-1 at 19:36 with a shot glove side on Binnington off a partial breakaway set up by Tkachuk.
“He’s making plays out there,” Gaudreau said. “Obviously smart player. He can see the ice really well, uses his teammates, and he made some big plays tonight.”
The two teams play again in St. Louis on Thursday, on the second night of a back to back for the Flames.
“We have to play them again here right away,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “We’re going to take some stuff out of [the game], learn from it, and move on and play a better game the next time we play them.”
NOTES: Gaudreau, who has at least 30 assists in eight straight seasons, is seventh in the NHL in assists since the start of the 2014-15 season (356). … Tkachuk, who is from St. Louis, has scored 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 12 games against the Blues. The Flames forward was one assist shy of tying Guy Chouinard and Gary Suter’s franchise record for the most in a game. … Flames defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who assisted on Zadorov’s goal, played in his 600th NHL game. … Tanev’s goal, his second of the season, ended a 31-game drought. His first goal was Oct. 25 in a 5-1 win against the New York Rangers.
