FLAMES FALL TO 'HAWKS

A four-goal second period proved the difference Saturday night, as the Flames fell 8-4 to the visiting Chicago Blackhawks at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The two teams were knotted at two after the first period but the visitors poured it on in the middle frame, including two goals in the final 2:13, to pull away for good.

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It was the first game back home since a successful West Coast road trip saw the Flames go 3-1, outscoring the competition 21-9 in that span.
Sam Bennett and Elias Lindholm each scored twice for Calgary.
David Rittich started the night in goal for the Flames, but left after allowing four goals on 15 shots, replaced by Cam Talbot.
It was another game that featured a quick goal off the hop, with Blackhawks defender Slater Koekkoek firing a nifty breakout pass off the boards right onto the tape of captain Jonathan Towes, who skated in alone down the left side before riping a laser at full gallop over the far shoulder of Rittich just 30 seconds into the tilt.
But the Flames had a quick answer back.
With Derek Ryan out with the flu, Bennett took his spot at centre between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube.
The three had a dominant first shift, hemming the puck and cycling it, leading to a cross-ice pass from Dube that Bennett easily tipped home by the right post into an empty cage behind Chicago goalie Robin Lehner at 2:07.

The trio showed off more creativity on their next shift, creating a few chances but unable to find paydirt.
The Blackhawks restored their lead at the 9:07 mark thanks to another Toews play, this time he gathered a puck behind the net and feed a pass out to Dominik Kubalik in the slot who one-timed it home.
That lead didn't last long either.
Just 3:40 to be exact.
This time it was Dube with an absolute front-runner for pass of the year, hitting a puck out of the air with his backhand as he skated towards the boards (just wow, watch the video), Bennett reaching out to grab it as he skated down main street and went backhand, forehand put his shoot over Lehner's outstretched right pad.

A lengthy keep-away shift by the Blackhawks in the Flames zone ended with Patrick Kane making a pass to Brandon Saad all alone to the left of Rittich, and he slide it home five-hole at the 4:24 mark of the second.
Alex Nylander made it 4-2 just 1:04 minute later, skating in and deking Rittich for an unassisted tally.
Rittich left the game after that goal, replaced by Cam Talbot.
The red-hot Lindholm scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season at 10:56, sweeping the puck into the net as he was hauled down to his butt in the crease, the pass coming from Johnny Gaudreau.

Lindholm extended his point-scoring streak to 10 games with the tally (five goals and 10 points coming into Saturday night, dating back to Jan. 28). He's now one goal shy of tying his career high of 27 which he notched last season.
Then the Blachawks rattled off two more quick ones.
Alex DeBrincat scored with 2:13 left to play and Nylander added his second 27 seconds after.
The Flames had a 22-19 edge in shots after 40 minutes but trailed 6-3.
Lindholm got a powerplay marker at 14:06 to round out the scoring, with the assists to Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk.
Kane had an empty-netter, while Kirby Dach rounded out the scoring.

THEY SAID IT:

Tkachuk on returning home:
"I don't know what to tell you. This has been, for some reason, the first game home after emotional road trips or emotional road games - this happened when we played Edmonton a couple of weeks ago or whatever. Just, I don't know why it is but we need to make this place a tough place to come for road teams and we haven't had success here since the break. ... I felt bad for our goalies tonight - too many point-blankers. They are a really good team off the rush, a really good offensive team. I wouldn't say we feed right into them but we just weren't as good defensively - ya, gave up eight goals."
Lindholm on struggles at 'Dome:
"As long as you don't win at home, doesn't matter if you win on the road, right? Obviously we were happy with the road trip but as long as don't get the work done at home, it doesn't matter."

Bennett on team's play:
"It's a little frustrating right now. I thought we had a pretty good first period, good push back after they scored early and then, for whatever reason, our defensive zone and our turnovers - we fell apart. We gave up way too many odd man rushes and good looks and they capitlized."
Interim coach Geoff Ward's take on loss:
"I just didn't think we did enough things at the puck, I didn't think we moved our feet as well as we could have, I didn't think we won as battles as we needed to, we didn't generate much offensively in the first two periods because we didn't have the puck an awful lot. So those things, we've got an opportunity, we're in the hockey game, you know the game gets to 4-3 and we have a chance on the powerplay to even it up and, I mean, we've got to bear down and make something happen there and then we give up two goals right after that, bang, bang, just on sloppy slot coverage really."

ONE-TIMERS:

This was the third and final matchup this season between the Flames and Blackhawks. Calgary won once, prevailing 2-1 in Chicago on Jan. 7 ... The Flames have a record of 18-17-4 against Western Conference opponents, and are 7-8-3 against the Central Division ... Mark Jankowski is two games away from hitting 300 in his career ... Andrew Mangiapane made his NHL debut against the Blackhawks on Dec. 31, 2017.

THE LINEUP:

Trios and D-pairings to start the tilt:
FORWARDS
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic - Sam Bennett - Dillon Dube
Zac Rinaldo - Mark Jankowski - Tobias Rieder
DEFENCE
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
TJ Brodie - Michael Stone
Oliver Kylington - Brandon Davidson
GOALTENDER
David Rittich

UP NEXT:

The Flames host the Anaheim Ducks for a Family Day matinee affair at 2 p.m Monday (
click here for tickets
). Then the Bruins come callin' on Friday (
click here for tickets
).