Rittich makes 34 saves, Flames shut out Canucks

CALGARY -- David Rittich made 34 saves for his second NHL shutout, and the Calgary Flames won their home opener, 3-0 against the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and two assists, and Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan scored for the Flames, who lost their season opener to the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Thursday.
"No one wants to lose two games in a row," Rittich said. "It's the same for us. I'm glad we did it today and we got the two points."
WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Flames highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves for the Canucks, who lost their season opener 3-2 at the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
"Just keep moving forward," Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers said. "It's not something we need to freak out about. The best year I've had with a team, we started that year 0-2 (2017-18 Winnipeg Jets). There's no point in dwelling on it. Push forward. Be better next game."
Gaudreau forced Myers into a turnover in the defensive zone, and Lindholm shot under Markstrom's arm to put Calgary up 1-0 at 13:50 of the first period.
"Obviously I'd like it back," Myers said. "I had trouble handling it. It was a bit of a bouncing puck. It's easy to say now I should've cut my losses, thrown it up the wall. He made a good play with his stick. That's the way it goes sometimes."

Monahan made it 2-0 at 1:10 of the second period when he scored on Gaudreau's centering pass from below the goal line.
"We're trying to focus on the little things in the game right now, and when we're doing that we're playing the right way," Monahan said. "That's when we generate the most looks and put the puck in the net. Right now it's going well. There's still lots of room to improve."
Calgary killed off three consecutive third-period penalties, including a one-minute 5-on-3 at 2:10. Vancouver was 0-for-6 on the power play. Calgary was 0-for-4.
"It's obviously hard," Canucks forward Brock Boeser said. "The power play can be a difference-maker. I think we had some good looks. We just didn't bear down on them."

Gaudreau scored into an empty net with 1:01 remaining for the 3-0 final.
"Maybe I could've found the net a couple more times," said Gaudreau, who has back-to-back multipoint games. "Same with [Monahan]. Same with [Lindholm]. We had a ton of chances tonight. A couple went in. We felt really good. We were creating chances, playing most of the game in the o-zone, which was nice. We played well."

They said it

"You always want to get off to a good start, not only individually but as a team. We've found the net a couple times. Power play has been clicking. PK, obviously, has been fantastic, especially tonight. It was a good game tonight." -- Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau
"I thought we actually had a decent first period and there was a lot of penalties and stuff in the second and they took momentum over, and then the lines juggled a little bit … you just have to take whoever is going out there and make the most of it. I thought we had a pretty good push-back there in the third but unfortunately didn't get any goals." -- Canucks forward Brock Boeser

Need to know

The line of Gaudreau, Monahan and Lindholm has combined for 10 points (five goals, five assists) in two games. … Canucks forward Loui Eriksson, who is in the fourth year of a six-year, $36 million contract signed on July 1, 2016, was a healthy scratch. … Forward Tobias Rieder, who was invited to training camp with the Flames on a professional tryout contract and signed a one-year, two-way contract Sept. 29, played 10:34 in his debut.

What's next

Canucks:Host the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNP, NHL.TV)
Flames: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-W, NHL.TV)