THAT'LL BUFF OUT

BUFFALO - The Flames were a focused bunch heading into their tilt Thursday with the Sabres.
They were coming off a 2-1 OT loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday in which the players talked about having tons of scoring chances but not capitilizing on enough of them.
Sean Monahan said the team was '"hungry" when he talked with media after the pregame skate.

NEED-TO-KNOW
POSTGAME VIDEO
Game Over with Brendan Parker
Game Highlights
Postgame Interviews
STAT PACK
Stats & Scoring Summary
Scoring Leaders
Standings
MORE
Photo Gallery
Say What - 'Scratching the Surface'
UPDATES

Well, they certainly feasted on the Sabres, scoring three goals in a span of 1:37 of the second period - and four in total - as they led 5-0 after 40 minutes en route to a 5-0 victory in the fifth stop of their seven-game road swing.
Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Mangiapane - with his team-leading 11th and 12th goals of the season - each scored twice, while Matthew Tkachuk had the other goal and added a pair of assists.
Jacob Markstrom had another impressive night, turning aside 27 shots to record his league-leading fifth shutout of the season.
Dustin Tokarski got the start for the homeside in net, just a few days after he made a career-high 45 saves in 2-1 victory over Pens on Tuesday. He played two periods, replaced to start the third by Airdrie native Aaron Dell.
With the victory, the Flames improved to 9-3-5 while the Sabres fell to 7-7-2.
The Flames red-hot PK - which came into the game sixth in the NHL at 86.8%, and were a perfect 12-for-12 in their last three games - killed off both Buffalo advantages in the tilt.
The Flames jumped out to an 8-2 edge in shots just over seven minutes into the game, the last one their best look to that point when Gaudreau feed the puck out from behind the net to Tkachuk who one-timed it from in-tight at the top of the blue paint.
Tokarski was able to slam his pads shut, the puck sitting beside him but a quick whistle ending the chance for Tkachuk to get a whack at his rebound.
However, the two then combined for Calgary's first goal at 10:30, Tkachuk springing Gaudreau on a partial breakaway with a heads-up, looooooong-distance stretch pass from the left corner in the Flames zone. No. 13 took the puck in stride just over the red line and with Sabres defenceman Colin Miller right on his back harrassing him, he snapped the puck high glove side for his fifth of the year.
Chris Tanev picked up the other helper.
Gaudreau was coming off a career-high 10 shots in the loss to the Flyers on Tuesday.

The Flames second goal was another thing of beauty, coming at the 1:42 mark of the middle stanza.
Tanev pinched in to grab the puck after a point blast by D-partner Oliver Kylington was blocked, quickly moving it to Mangiapane who went backhand to put it in.
The assist was Kylington's 12th point in his last 12 games as he extended his current point streak to five games.

Tkachuk made it 3-0 at 13:58, just after Calgary's first powerplay of the night expired. Elias Lindholm started an up-ice rush, passing to Gaudreau on the left-wing boards who lasered a perfect cross-ice pass through some traffic to a slightly trailing Tkachuk, whose wicked wrister went high short-side.

The Flames extended the lead 1:01 later, Mangiapane working a give-go with Backlund, taking the return pass and putting it into the wide-open net on one knee with Tokarski kneeling on the ice on the other side of the cage.

On the ensuing faceoff, Anders Bjork was whistled for high-sticking Tkachuk.
The Flames didn't take long to make them pay - 34 seconds to be exact when Monahan fed it across to Gaudreau on the backdoor who tapped it home.

Rasmus Andersson nearly made it 6-0 a few minutes into the third period when he beat Dell but not the post, the puck clanging out of harm's way.
Dell later made two big stops on Mangiapane to deny him his hat-trick marker.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: CGY 33, BUF 27
Powerplay:CGY 1-2, BUF 0-2
Hits:CGY 14, BUF 12
Face-offs: CGY 58%, BUF 42%
\Scoring chances: CGY 24, BUF 14
\High-danger scoring chances:CGY 9, BUF 7
\According of Natural Stat Trick (5-on-5)*

ONE-TIMERS:

Tyler Pitlick played in his 300th career game tonight ... This was the first of two matchups this season between the Flames and Sabres. These two teams last played way back on Dec. 5, 2019 when the Flames took down the Sabres 4-3 at the Scotiabank Saddledome ... The Flames are now 3-1-1 against the Atlantic Division this season and 9-1-2 against Eastern Conference opponents ... Tkachuk scored his first career NHL goal on Oct. 18, 2016 against the Sabres ... Elias Lindholm is now two games away from 600.

THEY SAID IT:

MATTHEW TKACHUK ON MANGIAPANE'S GREAT NIGHT:
"We all wanted him to get it (the hat-trick). He had like a million shot attempts. He played really well tonight. Still such a humble kid. Just kind of scratching the surface of what he can be and show the hockey world that he's one of the best in the NHL."
MANGIAPANE ON THE VICTORY:
"I think we were playing a good, solid game. We wanted to come out strong, fast, and kind of set the tempo, score the first goal and go from there. I think we're a good hockey team when all four lines are going and everyone's chipping in and that's we did tonight."
ON TRYING FOR THE HAT-TRICK:
"They were doing a good job trying to find me there (laughs). Just couldn't buy another one."
DARRYL SUTTER ON JOHNNY GAUDREAU'S TWO GOALS:
"Johnny lit it up tonight. Lots of speed. What did he have, 10 shots last game? He was 1-for-1 tonight there at the start. He's got that jump in his game again."
ON MARKSTROM'S YEAR SO FAR:
"He's one of our leaders, our core guys. It's not always easy to do from that position - guys are sort of on their own island a little bit - but he brings a lot to the locker-room."

IS THAT GOOD?

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

Jacob Markstrom - starter
Dan Vladar

UP NEXT:

The Flames head to New York for a tilt with the Islanders, breaking the ice in their new building - the UBS Arena. It will be the first game played in the brand spanking new arena in Elmont.