Flames defeat Blue Jackets, extend lead in Pacific, Western Conference

CALGARY -- The Calgary Flames strengthened their hold on first place in the Pacific Division and Western Conference with a 4-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday.

The Flames lead the San Jose Sharks by three points in each.
"We want to be feeling good," Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano said. "We want to play well. If we do, we feel like we have a real good chance of winning the division. Anytime you can get a little breathing room it's nice. They've been playing well. A couple losses for them and a couple wins for us changes things. You get a little gap.
"Three points is tight still. We've got to keep pushing forward and do our jobs. If we play the way we can and win the games we're supposed to we'll be in a good spot."
WATCH: [All Blue Jackets vs. Flames highlights]
Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Michael Frolik and Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Flames (45-21-7), who are 4-1-0 in the past five games and 11-5-0 in the past 16. David Rittich made 31 saves.
"It was kind of like a playoff game," Rittich said. "They're playing for everything. They want to make the playoffs. We want to prepare for the playoffs. That was the kind of game we needed. We played well. It's a good feeling from us."
Zach Werenski and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves for the Blue Jackets (40-29-4), who lead the Montreal Canadiens by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"You've got to take it one day at a time," Columbus forward Matt Duchene said. "Today we lost some ground but we're still in a spot."
Werenski shot short side by Rittich's blocker on a 2-on-1 to put the Blue Jackets up 1-0 at 10:25 of the first period. Gaudreau tied it 1-1 at 12:44 with a wrist shot from the high slot. It was Gaudreau's 35th goal of the season.

Mangiapane scored on a backhand in close to put Calgary up 2-1 at 19:52, and Frolik stickhandled around Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones before deking Bobrovsky 35 seconds into the second period to make it 3-1.
"It's definitely big," Frolik said. "When you score late in the period and early in the period it's huge. It's momentum. The game right now is all about momentum. When you come to the room and you score a late one, the momentum is on your side. We scored another one going into the second. The momentum was on our side."
Bjorkstrand cut the lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal 5:28 into the third period.
Tkachuk scored into an empty net with 51 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.
"We knew that tonight was going to be a tough test for us and they have a good record and a lot of good players on that team, but I thought we played a good game for the most part," Columbus forward Josh Anderson said. "The second and third, we made a good push there."

They said it

"There's still a couple games left but when you can jump a few points ahead it's nice. We knew coming into this game we could have some points in hand with a big win. I think it's going to be tight in the end. [The Sharks are] going to come back and get some wins." -- Flames forward Michael Frolik
"We're not getting the results, which is frustrating, but the process is there. The second you deviate from the process is when you start to fail and deserve to fail. We'll keep going and stay with it." -- Blue Jackets forward Matt Duchene

Need to know

Gaudreau has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past four games. … Tkachuk has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in the past five games. … Columbus forward Pierre-Luc Dubois hasn't scored in 12 games. … Giordano tied Robyn Regehr (826) for the second-most games played in Flames history. Jarome Iginla leads with 1,219. … Flames forward Curtis Lazar played his first NHL game since April 7, 2018. He was minus-1 in 4:48. … Columbus defenseman Markus Nutivaara did not play because of illness.

What's next

Blue Jackets:At the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Flames: Host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)