Flames score twice in third, defeat Islanders for sixth straight victory

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Mikael Backlund scored 3:15 into the third period, and the Calgary Flames won their season-high sixth straight game, 3-1 against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday.

Backlund broke a tie and extended his point streak to six games when he took a drop pass from Elias Lindholm in the right circle and sent a wrist shot that hit the shaft of Cal Clutterbuck's stick and went past Robin Lehner for his 17th goal of the season.
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Matthew Tkachuk and Rasmus Andersson also scored, and Lindholm had two assists for Calgary (40-16-7), which moved five points ahead of the San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division and Western Conference. Mike Smith made 26 saves.
Josh Bailey scored for New York (36-19-7), which is 1-2-1 in its past four games and tied with the Washington Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Lehner made 24 saves.
"It's a long season, you're going to have your highs and lows," Bailey said. "I think mentally, we just have to stay even keel, and for the most part we've done that. I think we've obviously talked about certain areas that we can be better at. But even when we're on top of our game, we're still talking about areas we can improve upon too. It's always about getting better and I'm sure we'll talk about it again tomorrow."
Tkachuk gave the Flames a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 2:57 of the second period when he took a pass from Lindholm at the front of the net, put the puck between his skates and roofed a shot over Lehner for his 25th goal of the season. It was his first goal in 15 games.

"[Lindholm] did a great job of snapping it over to me quick," Tkachuk said. "I think they left me by myself. It was just kind of an instinctual play that I thought he was going to pokecheck it like most goalies do, so I was trying to get it around the stick blade. Luckily, it went in."
Bailey tied it at 7:39 of the second when he was sprung on a 2-on-1 with Valtteri Filppula after Andrew Ladd caused a Flames turnover in the Islanders zone. Filppula carried the puck the other way before passing to Bailey in the right circle to make it 1-1.

Andersson gave the Flames a 3-1 lead at 5:12 of the third with a slap shot from the top of the right circle. It was his second NHL goal and first since Dec. 12.
"It's tough, because I think it was a good game," Lehner said. "I think it could have easily been 2-1, 3-1 us in the second period. We had a couple of open nets, but it didn't go in, and we played hard together.
"I think it was a tight game; it could have gone either way. Especially here at home, it usually goes our way. Of course, it [stinks]. For me, it felt like I played a really, really good game, and then I let in a [bad] goal. That goal, it doesn't happen often and it kind of took the power out of our team a little bit. I take responsibility for that."
Calgary failed to capitalize on a 5-on-3 man-advantage that lasted 1:31 after Islanders forward Matt Martin was whistled for interference at 18:09 of the second period and Clutterbuck took a delay of game penalty at 18:39.
New York was 0-for-4 on the power play.
"I think our guys came in and got refocused after the [second period] in a 1-1 game on the road," Peters said. "I liked a lot of things we did 5-on-5. At the end of the day, we found a way."

They said it

"It's never fun not scoring, but I think what helped me keep going is just we've been doing so well and winning games. But after a while, it starts getting very frustrating. It was nice to see that one go in." -- Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk
"We know we're a little bit off the standards we were, 100 percent. But it's not like we're accepting it or anything. We're aware, we're working hard to fix it. It's going to come. There are a few details of our game that we're working on. … I think in general, we've just got to tighten up a little bit." -- Islanders goalie Robin Lehner

Need to know

Johnny Gaudreau had an assist on Backlund's goal, his 80th point of the season. … Ladd and Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey were activated off injured reserve. Ladd, who hadn't played since Nov. 13 (44 games) because of a lower-body injury, had an assist. Hickey played 14:48 after missing 29 games because of an upper-body injury on Dec. 17.

What's next

Flames: At the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Islanders: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday (Nassau Coliseum; 7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG+, TSN4, NHL.TV)