ANOTHER BIG WON!

The drive is still alive.
Calgary's push for the post-season continued with a 6-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators Sunday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Johnny Gaudreau had a fantastic outing, scoring a breakaway tally and adding two helpers to ignite the Flames offence for one of its best outings of the year. His linemate Matthew Tkachuk also came up big with a goal and three points of his own.
The two were a force all night.

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Mikael Backlund, Michael Stone, Dillon Dube and Mark Giordano also scored for Calgary, while Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves.
It was the ninth and final regular-season meeting between the North Division opponents.
It was a game the Flames had to win - and they did so in emphatic fashion, controlling almost every facet of play right from the opening faceoff.
They built up a 7-1 edge in shots (with some additional chances that missed the net) before Gaudreau opened the scoring at 10:39 with his 19th of the campaign.
Leading up to the tally, No. 13 feathered a pass to Tkachuk at the top of the crease but he couldn't get his stick on the bouncing puck in front of Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg.
Then it was Gaudreau getting the puck in the high slot as he stepped into a shot that rang off the bar.
The Gaudreau-to-Tkachuk combo hooked up again, the latter's offering gloved by Forsberg.
Tkachuk then got a helper, passing the puck to Giordano deep in the Flames zone, who sent a long stretch pass to Gaudreau, the speedy forward stumbling slightly to slow him down a bit for a moment, but still able to turn it up and beat a chasing Victor Mete in a footrace, sliding the puck five-hole with the Ottawa defenceman in his hip pocket.
Johnny Hockey came in to the game with points in nine of his last 11 outings (5g, 7a).

The shots after 20 minutes were 10-3 for the homeside, with Calgary having a 12-3 advantage in scoring chances and a 6-2 edge in high-danger chances.
They picked up right where they left off to start the middle stanza, getting the puck deep in the Sens zone and battling hard, Backlund making it 2-0 when he took a dandy backhand pass from Andrew Mangiapane who was behind the net and then snapped a tight angle shot that beat Forsberg high just 17 seconds intothe period.
Joakim Nordstrom had the other assist on Backlund's ninth of the season.

Another dominant offensive shift by the Flames led to their third marker of the night just over four minutes later, the 13-to-19 duo - which had been dangerous since puck drop - cashing in, Gaudreau feeding a pass into the slot from the corner that Tkachuk tipped between the pads of Forsberg.

The pressure kept coming from the Flames which led to their fourth goal of the night courtesy of Stone. The big defenceman - who has been a workhorse since becoming a roster mainstay again - skated into the Ottawa zone and unleashed a slapshot on the fly that found the net far-side.
Glenn Gawdin - playing in his sixth game of the season and first since Feb. 27 against the same Sens - collected his first NHL point with the primary assist.

Josh Norris scored 1:01 later to get the Sens on the board.
Derek Ryan set up the fifth goal of the night with a great move - as he was hooked - to turn Ottawa blueliner Nikita Zaitsev around as he gained the zone, then passing to a wide-open Dube at the left faceoff dot who one-timed it home at 6:45 of the third period. The shots at that point were 30-16 for the Flames.

With Brady Tkachuk off for a slash, Giordano added a powerplay marker with a point shot at 13:53.

WELL DONE, GENTS!

THEY SAID IT:

Tkachuk on the victory:
"If we lost, we were going home, so it (was) an actual must-win, not just saying that. All we could do ... we put ourselves in a terrible position, to be honest. We just have to win and pray. That's all we can do tomorrow. Watch (Montreal's) game and never thought we'd root for Edmonton, but we need them to win these."

Sutter on difference in game:
"First period. It was nice to see guys who haven't scored for a while score. But the first period was better and normally it's ... (we didn't) give up many chances in the first period and that's the way you've got to play - our team has got to play - to win."

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: Cgy 36 I Ott 20
\Scoring Chances: Cgy 29 I Ott 11
\High-Danger Scoring Chances: Cgy 13 I Ott 3
Calgary Powerplay:1-1
Calgary Penalty-Kill: 3-3
Hits: Cgy 21 I Ott 13
Blocks: Cgy 6 I Ott 9
\According to naturalstattrick.com
Video: "It was a complete effort"*

THE LINEUP:

* To start the game
Lines
Johnny Gaudreau - Elias Lindholm - Matthew Tkachuk
Sean Monahan - Derek Ryan - Dillon Dube
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Joakim Nordstrom
Milan Lucic - Glenn Gawdin - Brett Ritchie
Pairings
Mark Giordano - Chris Tanev
Nikita Nesterov - Rasmus Andersson
Oliver Kylington - Michael Stone
Goaltender
Jacob Markstrom - starter
Louis Domingue

UP NEXT:

The Flames finish off the regular season with four-game set against the Canucks, beginning Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Scotibank Saddledome.