Flames score seven against Canucks, give Peters first win as coach

CALGARY -- Bill Peters got his first win as Calgary Flames coach, 7-4 against the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

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Peters was hired to replace Glen Gulutzan on April 23 after four seasons as Carolina Hurricanes coach.
"I thought there were lots of ebbs and flows," Peters said. "Special teams were big tonight and there were big moments in the game and we made enough plays to get away."
Elias Lindholm scored his first two goals and had his first assist with the Flames, Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano each had a goal and two assists, and Sean Monahan, Austin Czarnik and Michael Frolik scored for Calgary, which lost 5-2 at Vancouver on Wednesday to open the season. Matthew Tkachuk had four assists, and Mike Smith made 16 saves.
"It's huge," Lindholm said. "Obviously the way we played the last game, we don't want to play like that. We want to play better. We have a group in here that expects from ourselves to play better as well. I thought we stayed with it today, played good in the third and got the win. It was a good night."

Elias Pettersson had two goals and an assist, Brandon Sutter and Bo Horvat scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves for the Canucks.
"It's frustrating standing here with a loss," Markstrom said. "We took some penalties and they kept going. We have to learn as a team, especially up by one coming into the third, it's not easy to do on the road. You can't just waste those."
Monahan tied it 4-4 with a power-play goal at 9:27 of the third period on a backdoor pass from Gaudreau, and Lindholm, acquired with defenseman Noah Hanifin in a trade with Carolina on June 23, scored his second, also on the power play, at 14:28 to give the Flames a 5-4 lead.
"I just tried to shoot it as fast as possible," Lindholm said. "It probably wasn't my best shot but it went in. It was a really good pass and a nice play by the [power play] there. It's good to see it go in and nice to get the win."
Czarnik scored into an empty net at 18:22 for a 6-4 lead, and Frolik scored a shorthanded empty-net goal with 36 seconds remaining to make it 7-4.
"Up a goal, down a goal, up a goal," Gaudreau said. "It was a lot of resilience there in the third. I was pretty happy with the way our team played."
Lindholm gave the Flames a 1-0 lead 12 seconds into the first period. Pettersson tied it 1-1 at 13:15 to become the sixth player in Canucks history to score at least one goal in each of his first two games, and the first since Rick Lanz in October 1980.
"Personally, I'm very happy with my start," Pettersson said. "It's going good out there. I'm confident and producing offensively and I think I'm playing good defensively, too."
Sutter scored shorthanded at 16:38 give Vancouver a 2-1 lead before Giordano scored 30 seconds later to make it 2-2.
Pettersson, 19, the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, scored on a one-timer on the power play 2:52 into the second period to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead, but Gaudreau scored on a rebound on the power play at 9:31 to tie it 3-3.
"We were moving the puck around pretty well tonight," Gaudreau said. "Lots of practice the past few days, a lot of video on the power play. I think we definitely got a little bit better there. Still some room for improvement."
Pettersson's centering pass on a 5-on-3 power play was redirected by Horvat at 16:58 to give the Canucks a 4-3 lead.

They said it

"We knew we took some bad penalties there and we had to stay 5-on-5 or play power play. We did a good job in the third and [Peters] pointed [that] out before the third as well. It was a good job by the coach and the team." -- Flames forward Elias Lindholm
"We just went the wrong way. I think we started pretty good and had some pretty good jump and energy early. We got into a little bit of penalty trouble, obviously. They kind of picked us apart there. I just don't think we played that great of a game." -- Canucks forward Brandon Sutter

Need to know

Calgary finished 3-for-6 on the power play after going 0-for-7 against the Canucks on Wednesday. Vancouver was 2-for-6. … Tkachuk's four assists gave him 102 NHL points. … Tkachuk scored an apparent goal at 8:32 of the second period but it was disallowed after Vancouver coach Travis Green challenged for goaltender interference by Derek Ryan. … Pettersson is the seventh rookie since 1990-91 to score five points in his first two NHL games. The last was Jesper Bratt of the New Jersey Devils last season.

What's next

Canucks: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SNV, NHL.TV)
Flames: At the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, SNF, NHL.TV)