VALIANT EFFORT

They say never to poke the bear.
Turns out, 'they' were on to something, and a pair of early two-goal leads only served to anger the big, bad Bruins.
It went down as 4-3 Flames loss, with the B's roaring back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to win their fifth straight, Friday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

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Mikael Backlund scored twice, while Johnny Gaudreau added one of his own as part of a wild opening frame, but the Flames were unable to muster any offence the rest of the way.
Cam Talbot stopped 19 shots in a losing effort.
The Flames were all over the Bruins in the third period, out-shooting the visitors 10-6, but Jaroslav Halak stood tall, keeping it a 4-3 game until the bitter end.
The Flames opened the scoring only 20 seconds into the contest, with the typical grind and rigid work in the corners paying off again in the form of offence. Andrew Mangiapane - the poster boy for that style - got in on the forecheck, retrieved a loose puck and fed it back to the right point where Noah Hanifin uncorked a one-timer that drifted wide on the short side.
Rasmus Andersson then snuck in from the point and put a quick shot off the near post, but Backlund was there, lurking between the hash marks, ready to pounce on the rebound. With Halak well out of position, Backlund drove it upstairs for the emotional icebreaker.
The Flames opened up at two-goal lead at 2:34, with Backlund once again doing the damage, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Tobias Rieder.
Matthew Tkachuk made a great play at the defensive blueline, chipping the puck off the wall, behind the pinching defenceman, and giving Rieder the space to take off down the wing. Backlund - fresh off the bench - opened up into shooting position, called for the pass, and tattooed a one-timer from the right circle to give the locals a commanding advantage.
What. A. Start.

Patrice Bergeron got the Bruins on the board only 24 seconds later, though, capitalizing on a strange bounce off the end boards that popped out into the slot.
But the Flames had a response, reinstating their two-goal lead less than a half-minute later.
And what a goal it was.
Gaudreau made a series of moves en route to the net - a stunning, solo effort that resembled the magic of his 99-point season one year ago. With a clear path to the cage, Gaudreau dished off to Sean Monahan, but the cross-paint pass was partially blocked by David Krejci. Gaudreau stayed with it, though, tapping it home from the edge of the blue paint for his 15th of the year.

But the Bruins are the NHL's top team for a reason, and they weren't going quietly.
Bergeron made it a 3-2 game with his second of the night at 6:13, Again, it was Pastrnak's point blast that caromed hard off the end boards, and Bergeron was there - stationed at the side of the net - to shovel it home, short side, on the forehand.
The B's rounded out the scoring with the tying marker at 12:21, as Charlie Coyle took off on a breakaway and showed great hands with a fake shot, leg kick, and a smooth wedge over Talbot's glove hand.
A wild first period finished with the Bruins leading 12-6 on the shot clock.
Brad Marchand gave the visitors their first lead of the night less than a minute into the second. Parked in front of the net and locked in a battle with Rasmus Andersson, Marchand was able to free his twig at the most opportune time, redirecting a Brandon Carlo shot past Talbot.
With the Flames in need of a spark, Matthew Tkachuk stepped up and dropped the mitts with Jeremy Lauzon in response to a hard hit on Mangiapane moments earlier. Tkachuk got the better of the Bruin with a series of left-hand jersey jabs, and even connected with a few stiff rights before the two combatants tumbled to the ice.
Lauzon was left bloodied, while Tkachuk got a hearty cheer from the Scotiabank Saddledome faithful.
It was a quiet third period, despite a valiant push from the homeside. Calgary's best opportunities came on a powerplay midway through, but dog-tired Bruins found a way to keep the homeside at bay before Bergeron exited the penalty box and silenced the pressure.

THEY SAID IT:

MILAN LUCIC ON HOW THE GAME PLAYED OUT:
"Kind of a crazy start for both sides. They didn't give us much. But on the flip side, we didn't give them much, either. We had a little bit of a push there in the third to try and get ourselves back in it. Good powerplay and all that type of stuff, but... The things you can learn from a team like that, they're responsible, they don't give up much, they make you earn everything and that's what makes them such a good team. We play them again on Tuesday night, so we know what to expect."
MATTHEW TKACHUK ON LESSONS LEARNED:
"There's not a lot of panic in their game."
TKACHUK ON GENERATING OFFENCE:
"They weren't giving us anything. The couple chances we had, we scored on. There's no way they were giving up a ton today. The way they play, their depth... They've got four lines that can wear you down. Their D move the puck very well and they defend very, very well. You saw that in the third. They're a top-tier team in this league. There are a lot of guys over there with a lot of playoff experience and they know how to play in those tight games. We had a couple chances there in the third, but not enough to try and continue to put one past him."

BACKLUND ON HOW THE GAME TURNED:
"We came out well, but they got some momentum in the second half of the first and carried that over into the first part of the second. I thought it was an even game. We tried to push in the third, but it wasn't enough."
GEOFF WARD ON MATCHING UP WITH NHL'S BEST TEAM:
"I thought we played them tight. We had the scoring chances 12-11 at the end. Chances were even the last two periods. We felt we were tight enough on the defensive side of things. Offensively, we probably would have liked more likes, they would say the same thing and the played a pretty good defensive game against us. After the first 10 minutes, they really settled in and good teams do that."
WARD ON NEEDING SIMPLICITY, OFFENSIVELY:
"I thought in the offensive zone when we got our forecheck going, we were effective. But I really thought that when the puck went up to the top tonight, we could have generated some more shots to the net. I thought we were deferring a little bit, looking for passes at the top instead of shooting it."

Read more in Say What - 'It Wasn't Enough'

ONE-TIMERS:

Mark Jankowski played in his 200th career game tonight. Jankowski, who was taken with the 21st pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, has 36 goals and 64 points in his career. … Geoff Ward was an assistant coach with the Bruins for seven seasons, and was a part of the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning squad under head coach Claude Julien. Ward moved on from the Bruins in 2015 where he joined the New Jersey Devils as an assistant coach. ... Milan Lucic played eight seasons with the Bruins, totaling 139 goals and 203 assists over 566 games. He was also part of the championship squad back in 2011, recording five goals and 12 points in 25 playoff games.

THE LINEUP:

Here are the forward lines, D pairings and goalie to start the game:
FORWARDS
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic - Sam Bennett - Dillon Dube
Tobias Rieder - Mark Jankowski - Derek Ryan
DEFENCE
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
TJ Brodie - Michael Stone
Oliver Kylington - Alexander Yelesin
GOALTENDER
Cam Talbot

UP NEXT:

The Flames now embark on a season-long, five-game road trip that will have stops in Detroit, Boston, Nashville, Tampa Bay and Florida, before returning home to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday, Mar. 4 against the Columbus Blue Jackets (
click here for tickets
).