Kadri's three points lead Flames past Coyotes

CALGARY -- Nazem Kadri scored the go-ahead goal at 15:42 of the third period on a power play to help the Calgary Flames defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.

Kadri, who also had two assists, one-timed a cross-ice pass from Tyler Toffoli in the right face-off circle for his first goal in nine games. He has four points (one goal, three assists) in the past two games after going seven straight without one.
"There was a little frustration starting to seep in," Kadri said. "Felt like I had some great opportunities over the last lots of games, and it was a matter of time before it came."

Elias Lindholm and Dillon Dube scored, and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for the Flames (12-10-3), who have won two in a row and three of their past four. Dan Vladar made 18 saves for his third straight win.
"If we want to take the next step and climb into a playoff spot, we've got to put a couple together. We can't just be around .500 all the time and lose one, win one, lose one, and go that way," Lindholm said. "We've got to put a couple together here and honestly, tonight wasn't our best performance but we got the two points and we'll be better next game."
Jakob Chychrun and Shayne Gostisbehere each had a goal and an assist, and Karel Vejmelka made 24 saves for the Coyotes (7-12-4), who have lost five in a row and are 4-6-3 on a 14-game road trip which concludes Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers.
"It's frustrating," Arizona forward Nick Bjugstad said. "Obviously, we gave a good push. We thought we played pretty well. That seems to be a bit of a trend with us lately where we're hanging in some close games. We've got to find ways to win these tight games. It's frustrating, but we've got to stay optimistic and know what we do well and continue to learn from our mistakes."
Vladar made a right-pad save on Christian Fischer's one-timer from the slot with 1:14 remaining to preserve the win.
"'Vladdy's' been great," Kadri said. "He's always made that timely save and sometimes that's what it's about."

Dube gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 14:13 of the first period when he tipped in Chris Tanev's wrist shot, and Lindholm extended it to 2-0 when he tapped in a goal-mouth pass from Kadri on a power play at 17:01.
"That's the secret, you've just got to stay with it and not get frustrated, and continue to try to work to improve and find areas of the game you can strengthen," Kadri said. "I feel like for a few games our penalty kill has done a great job bailing us out, so it's about time our power play did the same thing."
Gostisbehere's wrist shot from the point beat a screened Vladar to cut it to 2-1 at 13:53 of the second period.
Chychrun scored from the left circle 5:50 into the third period to tie it 2-2.
"We were doing a lot of good things," Chychrun said. 'We just wanted to stick with it. I think the first half of that first period we were playing really, really good and we just kind of got away from it and found ourselves in a hole and we were able to fight back and tie it up. A lot of good things, a lot of resiliency. Just a good effort."

NOTES: Lindholm has scored in three straight games following a seven-game goal drought. ... Arizona is 0-8-2 when trailing after the first period, and 1-10-1 when trailing after two. ... Coyotes forward Matias Maccelli had one assist to extend his point streak to five games (one goal, six assists). … Arizona forward Clayton Keller had one assist, passing Keith Tkachuk (174) for the third-most assists by a Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets player before age 25. Only Dale Hawerchuk (440) and Dave Babych (248) had more.