FLAMES EDGED BY HABS

Normally the Flames are the ones orchestrating a dramatic, third-period comeback.
But on this night, it was the visiting Montreal Canadiens that rallied for a win in the final frame.
The Flames entered the third period with a 2-1 lead, following a dominant middle frame that saw them outshoot the Habs 19-7.

After Jonathan Drouin evened things up in the front half of the period, Artturi Lehkonen put the Habs on top with 7:46 to play, sliding a long-distance wrister off the rush five-hole on Mike Smith to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Matthew Tkachuk had both goals for the Flames, who fall to 10-8-1 on the year.
Smith addressed the winning goal post-game, saying it "can't happen" at that point in the game after the Flames controlled the play for most of the night.
"When you feel like you let your team down, it's probably the biggest frustration, disappointment that could ever happen in your career; when you drop the ball," he said. "Our team played such a great game tonight and deserved a better fate. When something happens like that and it's on you, it's disappointing.
"It feels like you let your whole team down ... It's tough to swallow right now."
The Habs were buzzing to start the third and eventually potted the tying marker at 8:32, after applying some extended pressure in the home end of the rink. Drouin deposited a rebound after Smith made a terrific, left-pad save to thwart Max Domi in tight.
Lehkonen's winner came less than four minutes later.

"Credit them, they played a good last half of that third period," Tkachuk said. "We weren't sitting back by any means, but we needed to keep pressing. We didn't let off the gas, but we didn't play as much in the offensive zone as we did in the second period."
The Canadiens opened the scoring at 8:01 of the first period, as newcomer Tomas Tatar tallied his eighth of the year. Brendan Gallagher won a puck battle deep in the offensive zone before it kicked out between the hash marks and onto a tee for the goal-scorer. With a pair of defenders blocking the view of the netminder, Tatar's quick fire squeezed under the glove to give the Habs a 1-0 lead.
The Flames took over in the early part of the middle frame, and evened things up with a powerplay marker at 3:43. Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm rotated up top, which opened up a one-time option at the right circle. Seeing this, Mark Giordano delivered the pass and Tkachuk did the rest with a smoker off the far post and in.
The Flames kept coming in waves and moments later, with all kinds of time in the middle, Lindholm ripped one off the post.
At last, on their 17th shot of the period, the Flames took their first lead of the night. TJ Brodie showed great patience, taking it all the way from the top of the circles around behind the net, before feeding Tkachuk with a beautiful net-front tap-in with 4:07 to play.
Overall, the Flames outshot the Habs 19-7 for a two-period lead of 32-17.
"We knew when it was 2-1, it would have been nice to get a little insurance - a little wiggle room," said head coach Bill Peters. "We probably had some good looks, more so in the second than in the third, and we needed to bear down more on some of those opportunities.
"It's a tough one.
"But we'll get right back at it tomorrow."