ST. LOUIS - It was a heckuva debut for the Flames new line of Jakob Pelletier, rookie Rory Kerins and Yegor Sharangovich on Monday night.
The trio combined for seven points in a 5-2 victory over the Blackhawks in Chicago to kick off a four-game road trip, with Pelletier scoring a pair in the first period and Kerins getting helpers on both in his first NHL tilt after a Friday recall from the Wranglers.
Pelletier finished the night with three points, while Sharangovich – playing at centre on the line - had a goal and an assist, his shorthanded marker coming at a key junction in the second period with Chicago on a five-minute advantage that Connor Bedard had scored on early.
The three dominated the game and created a handful of other scoring chances, a trend they hope carries over to tonight’s tilt in St Louis against the Blues (6 p.m. MT, Sportsnet).
“I think we played well,” said Pelletier Tuesday morning after team meetings at the hotel. “We played simple. If we play simple and you’re hard, I think good things happen. I remember also in the first, you know, we created a turnover and I passed to Sharky, Sharky to Ror and almost a back door open (goal).
“So we could have had more goals,” he added with a smile. “But we saved them for tonight’s game.”
It was the first multi-goal game of Pelletier’s NHL career, the two tallies his second and third of the campaign after being recalled himself from the Wranglers on Dec. 3.