FLAMES WIN EIGHTH STRAIGHT

The Flames are still streaking!
Calgary recorded its eighth straight victory and snapped the Montreal Canadiens six-game winning run as they skated to a 5-0 triumph Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
It was just the fourth time in team history the Flames have won eight straight.

Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and three assists while Mark Giordano, Michael Stone, Sean Monahan and Micheal Ferland also tallied for the homeside.
In what was expected to be a battle of two of the league's top goalies in Brian Elliott and Carey Price, it didn't pan out that way when just prior to the game Price was regulated to backup duty as he battled the flu.
Elliott got the shutout making 24 saves while at the other end of the ice, Al Montoya turned aside 33 of the pucks sent his way.

For the second straight game the Flames opened the scoring, after allowing the first goal in the previous five outings prior to Sunday's 5-2 win over the Islanders.
Off an odd-man rush, Matthew Tkachuk skated the puck into the middle of the high slot, before spinning to feed a trailing Giordano who snapped the puck high glove-side past Montoya.
Calgary pressed hard in the opening frame, outshooting the Habs 16-5.
Stone doubled the lead when he gathered a puck off the boards about six feet inside the blueline and wristed a shot that found twine to record his first goal as a Flame.

Monahan made it 3-0 when a rebound off a Stone point shot bounced off Montoya's pads and right onto his stick, where he snapped it into an open net.
Just 26 seconds later, Gaudreau feed Ferland as he skated across the slot and he shot high, glove-side to make it 4-0.

With three helpers to his credit, Gaudreau got a goal of his own with less than four minutes left in the third period when he grabbed a rebound at the side of the net from a Troy Brouwer point-shot and tapped it home.
NOTES: Michael Stone added an assist later in the second period on Sean Monahan's goal to reach 100 career points … Stone left the game in the third-period with an upper-body injury, joining fellow blueliner Dougie Hamiltion who went to the dressing room in the second period with a lower-body injury. Neither returned to the game … There were two fights in what was a spirited affair early: Kris Versteeg and former Flame Paul Byrondropped the mitts and threw a handful of punches in the second period and before the frame ended, Matt Barkowski andPaul Byron got into a short tussle behind the Flames net … Thursday's victory over the Canadiens was the 27th consecutive time that the Flames have earned a win when holding a lead after two periods. Seven of those 27 wins have come during this 10-game point streak and Calgary has also surrendered the first goal in seven of those 10 games.
NEXT UP:The Flames head to Winnipeg to take on the Jets Saturday night (5 p.m., Sportsnet, SPORTSNET960 THEFAN), before returning home to host Sid and the Pens Monday (7 p.m., Sportsnet West, SPORTSNET960 THEFAN).