5 THINGS - FLAMES @ COYOTES

FLAMES (30-24-13) @ COYOTES (24-32-11)

8 p.m. MT | TV: Sportsnet One/360 | RADIO: Sportsnet 960 The FAN

2022-23 Season Series: 2-0-0

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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
Pregame Interviews
GAME DAY FEATURES
'Staying Connected' - PK on a heater
Projected Lineup
Say What: 'Excited To Be Back'
STAT PACK
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
2022-23 Head-to-Head Stats
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Tyler Toffoli (56)
Goals - Toffoli (26)
Coyotes:
Points - Clayton Keller (69)
Goals - Keller (29)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 19.5% (23rd) / PK - 81.7% (12th)
Coyotes:
PP - 19.2% (25th) / PK - 75.4% (24th)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 57.00% (2nd)
High-Danger Chances: 52.80% (12th)
Coyotes:
Shot Attempts: 44.12% (30th)
High-Danger Chances: 42.59% (30th)
You can talk all you want about 'depth' and 'total team efforts,' but unless your top players rise up and deliver in key moments, you won't get very far in this league.
On Sunday, the Flames got everything they could ask - and more - from those that are counted on the most.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri led the way with two points each in a 5-1 win over the equally desperate Ottawa Senators to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Elias Lindholm (1G, 1A) and Mikael Backlund (2A) also had multi-point nights, and Jacob Markstrom - making his fifth consecutive start - was absolutely stellar between the pipes, but it was Calgary's off-season recruits that garnered most of the praise for putting the team on their back.
"I think sometimes we put a little too much pressure on ourselves," said Kadri, who was credited with the primary assist on both the Huberdeau and Noah Hanifin markers. "You want to be the guys that come through for your team and get on the scoresheet and help the team win, at the end of the day. There's a lot of accountability between us two and us three, specifically, with our line. For us, we're getting those opportunities and that's something we really have to focus on.
"When the opportunities stop coming, that's when maybe you should be a little concerned. For us, we've had a lot of chances, a lot of o-zone time.
"Really, if you stick with it, it's just a matter of time before it starts going in for you."
Kadri is now up to 49 points on the season, while Huberdeau has increased his total to 44 - both, after going two straight without one.
And they certainly did it in style.
Huberdeau's goal - his 12th of the season - was an absolute beauty, as he showed exceptional hand-eye with a deft, mid-air tip of Kadri's touchy goal-mouth feed. Sens goalie Kevin Mandolese had absolutely no chance, waving at it with the glove long after the puck sailed into the top corner.
"I kind of got lucky with that, and it finally went in," Huberdeau said. "I just tried to deflect it. It was quick. But I'm glad it looked good.
"This year, obviously, hasn't been great. But I think we just have to grind it out 'til the end. There's not a lot of games left, so try to get on the scoresheet. We're supposed to produce, so I think that's going to help the team if we do."
Darryl Sutter agreed, citing a key stat that you know the Flames' star players are keenly aware of.
"When those guys get you a goal or an assist or a point, we have a good record," he said. "When they don't, we don't."
When both Huberdeau and Kadri get a point, the Flames are 16-3-5. When neither do, they're 3-15-2.

The Coyotes rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to knock off the normally stingy Minnesota Wild 5-4 at Mullett Arena on Sunday.
Clayton Keller scored twice, including the OT winner, while Barrett Hayton also tallied a pair, and former Flame Brett Ritchie chipped in with the other as part of a season-high three-point night. Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves, improving to 18-19-5, with a .903 save percentage this year.
While the Coyotes are in the midst of a re-build and will not be heading to the postseason for the third consecutive year, you have to admire what they've done over the last little.
Whether it's out-gunning the Wild, taking the defending Cup champion Colorado Avalanche to overtime earlier this week, or beating down the hard-charging Nashville Predators before that - it's clear the Coyotes are no easy out these days, despite what their record may say.
"I love this group of guys in here," Keller told Patrick Brown of ArizonaCoyotes.com. "We attack the challenge every single day."
Keller now up to 29 goals on the year and will become Arizona's first 30-goal scorer and 70-point-getter since the 2011-12 season with his next tally. The 24-year-old has 10 points (4G, 6A) in his last five games.
As a group, the Coyotes are now 3-0-2 in their last five.
"It was old school hockey there," Coyotes Head Coach André Tourigny told reporters. "There were some fights, there was some toughness, there was a lot of emotion, and our guys pushed back so much, I'm really, really proud of them.
"We show up with a purpose. We want to fight, and we want to build a culture on the team. Tonight, we took a step in the right direction."
LINDHOLM 200:
Elias Lindholm scored his 200th career goal on Sunday against Ottawa, becoming the sixth active Swedish-born skater to reach the milestone, and the fifth from the 2013 draft class, joining Nathan MacKinnon (270), Aleksander Barkov (237), Sean Monahan (218) and Bo Horvat (206). The Boden, Sweden native has scored 136 of his 200 goals as a member of the Flames and currently has the fourth-most goals by a Swedish-born player in Flames franchise history. Only Mikael Backlund (180), Hakan Loob (193), and Kent Nilsson (229) have more. Lindholm's goal would also hold up as the game-winner, tying him with Gary Roberts for the ninth-most in franchise lore with 27.
MARKY MARK:
With his 31-save effort on Sunday, Jacob Markstrom earned his 18th win of the season and 77th victory as a Flame. With the win, Markstrom passed Phil Myre for the fifth-most wins in franchise history. Markstrom has a .931 save percentage and a 2.07 goals-against average in his last six starts, making 188 saves over that span.
Stick tap to Flames Public Relations Coordinator Jordan Bay for compiling these notes.
Follow him and the Flames PR team @FlamesPR on Twitter for more.

Flames - Mikael Backlund
The debate can rage on about which of his two setups will earn more time on the highlight reels. The fact is, both were Oscar-worthy performances, on a night when the Academy Awards were being handed out in Hollywood.
"It was just instincts," Backlund said, humbly describing his glorious cross-ice feed to Lindholm to make it 2-0 in the first period.
Before that, he pulled off the filthiest of toe-drags, turning Alex DeBrincat inside out before spotting Rasmus Andersson over his shoulder and putting the pass in his wheelhouse.
Clearly, those 'instincts' have taken on new life. With 44 points (15G, 29A) this year, the 33-year-old is now only three points off a career high, with 15 games left to do it.
Backlund is now only one assist away from 300 in his career. When he does it, he'll become just the second Swedish-born skater in franchise history to eclipse that mark (Kent Nilsson - 333), and become just the 11th skater to achieve the feat with the Flames. Backlund's 29 helpers this year are tied for the third-most he's recorded in a single campaign (31 in 2016-17 and 2017-18) and are the fifth-most on the Flames so far in 2022-23.

Coyotes - Connor Mackey
Of the three former Flames now playing in the desert, Mackey might be the most fascinating. Sure, Ritchie is coming off a three-point game and Juuso Valimaki is playing No.-1 minutes on the Arizona blueline - but after getting squeezed out of the rotation in Calgary, the 27-year-old Mackey is now getting what every young player craves:
Opportunity.
Mackey dressed in only 10 games with the Flames this year, but has been a fixture on the Coyotes blueline since the March 1 trade. In five games with the Desert Dogs, the 6-foot-2, 197-lb. rearguard has two assists and is averaging 14:23 in ice time.
Mikael Backlund on pushing back after Ottawa scored a lucky one on Sunday:
"It was another one of those breaks that went the wrong way. ... I thought we did a good job of handling that. They're really good offensively and have some really gifted players. You know they're going to have their shifts in momentum and I thought we handled it well - better than we've done here in the past at home. We've struggled at home and that's been a big key as to why we've been losing at home - we haven't been able to handle that pushback, momentum swings, whatever the case may be.
"Tonight, I thought we did a better job."