Shooters Shoot

BOSTON – When certain people have the puck on their stick and the twine in the crosshairs ... you can can almost feel what comes next.

You know about the mentality of a shooter.

About how deadly the release is.

You know that deep down - if they find themselves in the right spot on the ice - you're seconds away from watching the scouting report play out in living colour.

When Andrei Kuzmenko took a Jonathan Huberdeau pass in the high slot less than five minutes into Tuesday's battle in Beantown, you knew that very posture was why Flames GM Craig Conroy made him a target when dealing Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks last week.

He's a sniper.

And that bullet of his not only served as the catalyst for a 4-1 Flames win on Tuesday at TD Garden, but is hopefully a sign of things to come between the newest recruit and their talented disher, who also tallied in Boston.

Connor Zary and Boston native Noah Hanifin scored the Flames' other markers, while Jacob Markstrom made 21 stops to help the Flames improve to 23-22-5. Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, meanwhile, finished with three points each.

"This was one of our better games this year," said Head Coach Ryan Huska. "I thought it was a really good team, where the gusy came to play the right way. They were simple. I thought, for the most part, the guys skated really well, so it's nice to see.

"For me, it was one of those nights where the four lines were going and it makes everybody's job much easier when you're spreading out some ice time. I thought (Kevin) Rooney's line did an excellent job for us and it's something we haven't seen for a little while."

With the Flames up 2-0 entering the third period, they were put to the test when penalties to Brayden Pachal (hooking) and MacKenzie Weegar (high-sticking double-minor) gave the homeside a 1:09-long 5-on-3. The Bruins wasted little time, with Pavel Zacha chewing into the deficit with a one-time blast from the right circle at 4:14. The goal snapped a shutout streak of more than 110 minutes for Markstrom, who earned a 1-0 bagel on Jan. 27 prior to the all-star break.

From there, the Bruins were buzzing and the passionate Boston fans created a deafening atmosphere at the Garden. But a too-many-men penalty nullified the remainder of the powerplay and allowed the visitors to gather their bearings.

Moments later, Huberdeau snuffed out the noise with a snipe of his own over the shoulder of Jeremy Swayman, restoring the two-goal lead with his seventh of the season at 6:23 - 2:09 following the Zacha tally - after stripping Charlie McAvoy along the half wall. Hanifin then rounded out the scoring on the powerplay with a lovely backhand off the rush, giving him five goals and 13 points in 17 career games against his hometown team.

"That's what I'm most proud of," Kadri said. "Obviously, a huge goal by Huby. What a shot. He's got to use that more often. He picked a great corner. But that bounce-back... I don't think we ever really got deflated. We were controlling most parts of the game and we just had to stay with it. 

"A pack of hyenas can take down a lion," Kadri added of the Bruins, who lost for only the fifth time (in regulation) on home ice this year. "That's the type of mentality that we need is playing as a team, everyone chipping in. And when we do that, we can accomplish great things."

The game featured the return of Jakob Pelletier and the aforementioned Rooney – both of whom suffered shoulder injuries in the preseason, had surgery, and worked on identical timelines before being recalled to the big club prior to the road trip, four months after going down . Pelletier, Rooney and Walker Duehr made up the Flames’ fourth line and had an splendid showing, playing 6:52 and controlling 64.29% of the possession when they were on the ice together at 5-on-5.

Pachal – who was claimed off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday – made his Flames debut, logging 12:03 on a pair with Oliver Kylington.

You couldn’t draw up a better first period for the visitors, who were far and away the better team, outshooting the B’s 12-10 and earning a two-goal cushion for their efforts on the strength of some offensive magnificence.

Kuzmenko drew first blood with a powerplay goal, taking a pass from Huberdeau off the rush and leaning into a wrister from the tops of the circles, beating Swayman over the glove hand at 4:20.

With the goal, Kuzmenko became the fifth-fastest player in history to score in their Flames debut. The fastest was Eddy Beers at the 1:45 mark on March 17, 1982.

"They moved the puck around fairly well in the offensive zone," Huska said of the top unit. "We talked this morning how we weren't really sure what we were going to get from them on the defensive side of things, but I thought Sharan did a really good job of making sure he was responsible and in the right position in our own zone. And once they got the puck in the offensive zone, they made some good plays and they had other chances that they could have generated as well. So, it's a start - and hopefully they can continue to build some chemistry."

On Monday, we got our first glimpse of that wildly impressive shot of his – and it didn’t take long for the affable winger to put it to good use in game action.

Kuzmenko, who had eight goals in 49 games as a Canuck, could be getting the shot in the arm he so desperately needed after lighting the lamp 39 times last year.

And sometimes, it all it takes is an opportunity.

"It's a good feeling," Kuzmenko said - laughing at how "tired" he was after playing more (15:07) than he was used to this season. "Good feeling because we won. I like it. I said before the season, I want to play in the playoffs and I'm trying. Every game is a little step, step, step."

"He was getting open," added Huberdeau. "I told him, a lot of give-and-gos we're going to create. That's how we have to be. You give the puck, you try to get open after. We did tonight, so we've got to keep it going."

The brilliance continued at the 13-minute mark when Zary made it a 2-0 game, converting a filthy feed from Kadri to tally his 11th of the campaign. Kadri showed all kinds of patience off the rush, delaying through the middle before feathering a pass behind Kevin Shattenkirk and allowing Zary to skate into the pass, cut hard to the net and bury a backhand into the yawning cage.

Tempers flared with four minutes to play in the first period when Bruins captain Brad Marchand got three whacks at prone Markstrom, before Martin Pospisil came in and emphatically cleaned house. Trouble is, the rookie connected with Marchand up high and was given five minutes and a game misconduct for cross-checking.

Marchand was given two for his part in the fracas, forcing the Flames to kill two of the remaining three minutes of Pospisil’s minor before the period was out.

Pospisil was playing his first game since leaving the Flames’ Jan. 18 contest against the Leafs with an upper-body injury.

The Flames kept at it in the second and outside of the goal total (0), it was – arguably – an even better period, with the visitors outshooting the Bruins 9-5 to take a two-period total of 21-15 and sending the Garden faithful into a chorus of boos at one point.

"I think it was the most complete game we've played all year," Huberdeau said. "We knew it was going to be hard in this building against a really good team, but we didn't give them much."

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Yegor Sharangovich - Andrei Kuzmenko
Connor Zary - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman
Jakob Pelletier - Kevin Rooney - Walker Duehr

Defence

MacKenzie Weegar - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - Chris Tanev
Oliver Kylington - Brayden Pachal

Goaltenders

Jacob Markstrom - Starter
Dan Vladar

Scratches: Cole Schwindt, Dennis Gilbert, Jordan Oesterle

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 29, BOS 22

Powerplay: CGY 2-for-4, BOS 1-for-4

Faceoffs: CGY 44.7%, BOS 55.3%

Blocked Shots: CGY 17, BOS 18

Hits: CGY 27, BOS 29

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 20, BOS 15

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 6, BOS 6

Up Next:

The Flames continue this four-game road trip on Thursday when they visit the New Jersey Devils, before squaring off with the Islanders and Rangers in their lone visit to the Empire State this season.