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OTTAWA - The first round of this season's Battle of the Brothers goes to the older sibling.
Matthew Tkachuk scored a goal as the Flames got back in the win column with a 4-0 victory over the Senators in a Sunday afternoon matinee at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Brendan Parker wraps up the win

Dan Vladar got his second straight start - and fourth of the season - after backstopping the Flames to a hard-fought 2-1 overtime loss to the Leafs in Toronto Friday night.
He was simply superb Sunday, making 27 saves for his first-career shutout.
Youngster Walker Duehr made his debut for the Flames, turning the obligatory rookie solo lap before the tilt.
He became the first South Dakota born player to skate in the NHL.
Andrew Mangiapane - with his team-leading 10th of the season - also scored for the Flames, as did Elias Lindholm, who finished with two points, and Nikita Zadorov.
Sean Monahan had two assists in the outing.
The Flames improved to 8-3-4 and will continue this season-long seven-game road trip Tuesday in Philly against the Flyers.
Furthermore, they improved to 8-1-2 when scoring the first goal of the game and 7-0-1 when taking a lead into the third period of hockey games this season.
The Sens were without a handful of players due to Covid-19 protocols, including leading-scorer Drake Batherson.
Last season, these two teams met nine teams as part of the all-Canadian Division with Tkachuk leading the way for the Flames with 10 points (2G, 8A) in head-to-head play against his brother Brady, who was named the 10th captain in Senators franchise history on Nov. 5.
On Sunday, Tkachuk's physicality, soft hands and incredible hockey IQ was on display all night for the visitors, helping pace them to a win after dropping their last three games.
As for Vladar, he was tested early when Egor Sokolov found himself alone in the slot, but the Calgary netminder kicked out his right pad to deny his offering.
Later he picked up a Lassi Thomson point shot through traffic - with Sokolov parked on his doorstep - and snagged it with his glove.
The Flames had to kill back-to-back penalties past the midway mark of the frame, first a two-minute elbow to Erik Gudbranson and with 14 seconds left in it, Blake Coleman was sent to the box for hooking.
The team's PK - which came into the game ranked 10th in the NHL at 84.1% - got the job done, killing off both.
Oliver Kylington - who scored the lone marker in the loss to the Leafs - made a great play to pinch in and break up an attempted Sens clear and then get the puck to Monahan, who circled in the slot and fired a puck that Mangiapane tipped home at 3:53 past Anton Forsberg.

CGY@OTT: Mangiapane redirects Monahan's shot home

On the ensuing Flames possession after the faceoff, Johnny Gaudreau circled behind the net and passed out to Lindholm in the high slot, who dropped to a knee as he stepped into the shot but Forsberg got a piece of it.
Not to be outdone, Vladar made an acrobatic save with a crowd of players around his crease not long after.
Lindholm won a faceoff back to Rasmus Andersson, who let a floating wrister from up high towards the right boards go that Lindholm tipped under the right arm of Forsberg for his eighth of the year at 4:51.

CGY@OTT: Lindholm tips it in as he skates by the slot

The Flames made good on their second powerplay. First Forsberg stopped Lindholm in tight but later in the advantage, the centre passed out to Tkachuk parked in the bottom of the right faceoff circle and he put home his seventh of the season at 9:18 into an open cage, with Monahan getting the other helper.

CGY@OTT: Tkachuk scores PPG in 2nd period

Tkachuk had a chance to make it two in the period when he was sprung on a partial breakaway, but ended up with Thomson on his back as he got a backhand off that Forsberg saved.
Things got physical to end the middle stanza, with Gudbranson and Zach Sanford dropping the mitts as part of a melee as time expired.
Zadorov got his second of the season early in the third period, beating Forsberg low at 1:56 to round out the scoring. Blake Coleman picked up the helper.

CGY@OTT: Zadorov picks the top corner on the rush

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: CGY 33, OTT 27
Powerplay:CGY 1-4, OTT 0-5
Hits:CGY 23, OTT 34
Face-offs: CGY 59%, OTT 41%
\Scoring chances: CGY 18, OTT 10
\
High-danger scoring chances:CGY 5, OTT 4
\According of Natural Stat Trick (5-on-5)*

ONE-TIMERS:

Lindholm is four games away from 600 in his career ... Tkachuk is 10 points away from 300 ... Dillon Dube recorded his first career hat-trick on March 4, 2021 against Ottawa. He also played his 100th career game in Ottawa on March 22, 2021 ... The Flames are now 2-1-1 against the Atlantic Division this season and 8-1-1 against Eastern Conference opponents ... Jarome Iginla took part in the Adidas HHOF Alumni Classic Sunday as part of the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Stay tuned to CalgaryFlames.com and our social media channels for interviews with Craig Conroy, Martin Gelinas, Lanny McDonald, Mike Cammalleri, Jayna Hefford and Iggy himself.

THEY SAID IT:

DAN VLADAR ON FIRST NHL SHUTOUT:
"Guys played great in front of me. … I'm going to get (the puck) framed. I'm super excited about it. But like I said, I had no rebounds, I saw all the pucks, so the game wasn't really hard for me. The guys played great. We came with the right mindset for tonight and we've got to keep this going."
MATTHEW TKACHUK ON GETTING BACK IN THE WIN COLUMN:
"I thought everybody played solid in general. It was one of those momentum-type games for this road trip. The way the first two went, we had to get this one. That middle-ish game, we really needed to get the win to help propel us on the rest of this trip - to give us some life and not be playing catch-up the rest of this trip."
DARRYL SUTTER ON THE OVERALL TEAM PERFORMANCE:
"I thought it was really hard for our team. It's four (games) in six days, you know? It's a tough schedule right now and I said it the last time, when we were in that real tough part of it, your toughest opponent is that. So, how did we play? We were physically engaged in it. Those two games, Montreal and Toronto, they're hard games. They take a lot out of your team, besides the travel. They're hard games to play. So, this was a real gut-check for our team and they did a really good job. Mentally, they were probably not as sharp as they needed to be, but physically, they were really good."

"This was a real good gut-check for our team"

THE LINEUP:

Trios and duos to start the tilt:
Lines
Johnny Gaudreau - Elias Lindholm - Matthew Tkachuk
Blake Coleman - Sean Monahan - Andrew Mangiapane
Dillon Dube - Mikael Backlund - Trevor Lewis
Milan Lucic - Brad Richardson - Walker Duehr
Pairings
Oliver Kylington - Chris Tanev
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
Nikita Zadorov - Erik Gudbranson

Goalie

Dan Vladar - (starter)
Jacob Markstrom

UP NEXT:

The Flames fly Stateside for a Tuesday night tilt with the Flyers in Philly, followed by a Thursday night game against the Sabres in Buffalo.