Jake-pot

He got bumped up to the top line in the second period.

And Jakob Pelletier made it count.

The young forward tipped home the decider early in the third period, and finished with his second multi-point game inside two weeks as the Flames upended the Sabres 5-2 at the Scotiabank Saddledome during Canadian Armed Forces Services Appreciaton Night.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Yegor Sharangovich and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, who responded to a second-period deficit with four unanswered goals to earn two valuable points in the Western Conference standings.

Huberdeau and Kadri finished the game with three points apiece, while Dustin Wolf made his mark in goal, too.

He stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced, improving to 12-2-1 on home and ice and further stating his case in the race for the Calder Trophy.

Buffalo held a 14-7 edge in shots through 20 minutes, but Wolf was cool, calm and collected in his crease, swallowing pucks from JJ Peterka and Dylan Cozens in the opening minutes to keep the game scoreless.

The Flames, meanwhile, almost opened the scoring on their first shot of the game. A point blast from Brayden Pachal caromed to Backlund in the slot, but his quick release was kicked out by Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who then flashed the leather on a Ryan Lomberg effort just shy of the midway mark of the period.

Rasmus Andersson had a couple of opportunities of his own in the second half of the period, driving the net on a 2-on-1 rush that knocked Luukkonen’s glove into the corner, but failed to knock the disc into the cage.

He cranked a one-timer off the iron with just over two minutes left, too.

Calgary’s first-period efforts paid off through Huberdeau, who pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone on a short-handed opportunity, after a clearing attempt bounced off Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin’s stick, and into open space.

Huberdeau kept his cool, picked his spot, and fired the puck through Luukkonen’s legs for his team-leading 19th goal of the season, giving the Flames a 1-0 advantage at the 12-minute mark.

The Sabres answered back as period two kicked into gear, tying the game on a Mattias Samuelsson point shot at 2:50, then claiming a 2-1 lead four-and-a-half minutes later when Tage Thompson redirected a Samuelsson shot home for his 22nd of the season.

But the Flames vets halted Buffalo’s momentum with a record-scratch three minutes after the 2-1 goal.

Jakob Pelletier outletted to Huberdeau on the right wing, and upon crossing the blue line Huberdeau found a trailing Kadri, who strode in, fired, and watched the puck sneak through Luukkonen into the back of the net.

The vets set the table, and the youth took over in the third.

Matt Coronato just about gave the Flames the lead in the opening minute, splitting the D and racing in alone on Luukkonen, but his triple deke rolled off the toe of his stick just as he was about to shoot.

But Pelletier made good shortly after.

Pachal launched a puck goalward and Pelletier - while jockeying for position with a Buffalo defender - got the shaft of his stick to the puck, helping usher it into the net behind Luukkonen.

At the other end, Wolf was unbeatable. He made nine saves in the final frame including a flurry of penalty-kill stops with about eight minutes on the clock, a frantic sequence made all the more calamitous after an initial one-timer from the right circle ricocheted off his mask, straight down into the goal crease.

But the Flames netminder saved his best for later in the game. With just under five minutes on the clock, he lunged from right to left, reached out with his catching mitt, and robbed Peterka on a point-blank chance from the edge of the blue paint.

Sharangovich made it 4-2 for the locals with 2:45 to play, deflecting a Huberdeau point shot into the empty net.

Backlund salted the game away with a short-handed, empty-net marker 37 seconds later.

The Flames' PK finished 6-6 on the night, accounting for a pair of short-handed markers as well.

The Lineup:

FORWARDS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Blake Coleman - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato

Rory Kerins - Yegor Sharangovich - Andrei Kuzmenko

Ryan Lomberg - Clark Bishop - Jakob Pelletier

DEFENCE

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

Jake Bean - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 26, BUF 34

Powerplay: CGY 0-2, BUF 0-6

Faceoffs: CGY 38.8%, BUF 61.2%

Blocked Shots: CGY 19, BUF 14

Hits: CGY 19, BUF 20

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 21, BUF 28

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 12, BUF 13

Up Next:

The team hits the road for a pair of contests in Minnesota Saturday (5 p.m. MT) and Winnipeg Sunday (4 p.m. MT). After this weekend's games, the Flames will play seven of their next eight at home, beginning with a Tuesday night affair against Washington. GET TICKETS