SIX-CCESS

Make it six wins in a row.

Sean Monahan scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season and added an assist to lead the Flames to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla.

"You want to ride these as long as you can," said captain Mark Giordano, who commended goalie David Rittich for making 41 saves to improve his record to 4-1-1 since being recalled from the AHL's Stockton Heat on Nov. 24. "I thought he made some big, big saves, especially late in the third. We enjoy obviously playing in front of whoever's in the net, but both of them (Rittich and Mike Smith) have been outstanding this year."

Coach Glen Gulutzan also praised Rittich for his play.

"It's his effort to in practice and then he comes in and he competes this hard in games," Gulutzan said. "Guys want to play in front of him. That's important for a guy that's a backup goalie and is trying to make his way in the league to put in the work and have your teammates want to go to battle for you. He made some saves early and it kind of gave us a little bit of a boost and we responded."

Mikael Backlund scored an empty-net goal and had two assists for the Flames (24-16-4), who moved within one point of the Los Angeles Kings (24-13-5) for second spot in the Pacific Division.

Matthew Tkachuk chipped in with a goal and an assist while Johnny Gaudreau also scored.

"We found a way to come out with the win," Tkachuk said. "I think at the beginning of the year we were finding ways to lose and now we're grinding out wins, so it's definitely an added bonus when you don't play your best game and you still get the win."

Evgenii Dadonov scored both goals for the Panthers (18-19-6) while goalie James Reimer stopped 25 shots fired his way.

The Panthers had an early power play in the first period but were kept off the scoresheet thanks to a nice save by Rittich on Alexsander Barkov just before Florida defenceman Keith Yandle rang a shot off the post.

The Panthers opened the scoring with a power-play goal 27 seconds into the middle frame when a shot by Dadonov from the slot beat Rittich high to the glove side.

Just 33 seconds later, the Flames responded when Dougie Hamilton made a great backhand pass into the slot to Monahan, who quickly one-timed a shot past Reimer.

Tkachuk then backhanded a rebound into the Florida net for his second goal in as many games at 10:38 before Gaudreau blasted a slap shot past Reimer for a power-play goal to put the Flames up 3-1 with 3:45 to play before the second intermission.

Dadonov pounced on a loose puck in front of the Calgary net to cash in his second goal of the game and pull the Panthers within a goal at 13:03 of the third.

Rittich stood his ground to stop back-to-back shots by Vincent Trocheck and Aaron Ekblad with 1:40 left on the clock and Reimer on the bench for an extra attacker.

"I came in the net and I want to win every game," Rittich said. "I knew we had five (wins) in a row before this game and I want to keep it up, so I try to show my best and give the biggest chance for the guys to win and we did it."

Backlund then scored into an empty net with 45.1 seconds left to secure the victory for the Flames.
ONE-TIMERS
The Flames have allowed three or fewer goals for 17 straight games, which is the longest such streak in the NHL this season … Both Monahan and Gaudreau extended their point-scoring streaks to six games. During that span, Monahan has scored four goals and set up six others while Gaudreau has tallied two goals and nine helpers … The Flames have compiled a 13-4-0 record when Monahan scores a goal … The Flames had killed off 16 straight penalties called against them until Dadonov scored for Florida early in the second period … Calgary improved its road record to 12-5-4 while Florida now has a 10-7-3 mark on home ice … The Flames are now 49-0-2 when leading after the second period over the last two seasons.

NEXT UP
After wrapping up their four-game road trip with a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., TV: Sportsnet West, Radio: Sportsnet 960 The FAN), the Flames will enjoy four days off as part of their bye week. They'll be back in Calgary next Friday for an afternoon practice before returning to the Scotiabank Saddledome ice on Jan. 20 against the Winnipeg Jets for a Hockey Day In Canada matinee (1 p.m., TV: HNIC, Radio: Sportsnet 960 The FAN).