Markstrom makes 34 saves in return from injury, Flames edge Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves in his return from injury, and the Calgary Flames won 2-1 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Markstrom missed the previous two games because of an upper-body injury for Calgary (5-8-2), which is 3-1-1 since a six-game losing streak. Connor Zary had a goal and an assist.

“I think for the most part it was a good start from us, a good first period,” Flames forward Nazem Kadri said. “And I think obviously ‘Marky’ stood on his head when he needed to, we scored some timely goals, you know, it’s a tough building to win in and it’s a big win for us.”

Gustav Lindstrom scored his first goal with the Canadiens (7-7-2), who have lost consecutive games and are 2-5-1 in their past eight. Sam Montembeault made 27 saves.

“We’ve had good goaltending all year long, that’s the reason we’re in the position we’re in right now,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “You know, you’d like to reward those guys but tonight it’s disappointing. The pucks didn’t find the way in the net for us. But you are going to have nights like this, it’s important to bounce back the right way.”

Markstrom made a glove save on Josh Anderson’s shot from the slot on a setup by Sean Monahan with 1:08 left in the third to hold onto Calgary’s 2-1 lead.

“It got close there at the end, but everybody did a great job blocking shots and clearing, and the penalty kill was really good once again,” Markstrom said.

Anderson has yet to score through his first 16 games. He has 122 goals in 473 NHL games, including 57 goals in 190 games the past three seasons for Montreal.

“It’s frustrating right now, especially when you have opportunities to help your team out, to tie the game or finish it,” Anderson said. “I’ve just got to dig deeper, bear down.”

Kadri gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 2:35 of the second period. He spun around in the high slot after carrying the puck into the offensive zone and scored on a long wrist shot past Montembeault, stick side.

Lindstrom tied it 1-1 at 2:52 when he pinched to shoot a rebound over Markstrom for his first goal since Feb. 13 for the Detroit Red Wings in a 6-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks.

Zary put Calgary up 2-1 at 13:07 when he redirected Rasmus Andersson’s pass from the right side into the left side of the net from the edge of the crease. The rookie forward has six points (three goals, three assists) in his first six NHL games.

“I was able just to slide backdoor and kind of find a little soft spot, and ‘Andy’ made a [heck] of a play,” Zary said. “I kind of had to just stand there. He put it right on my tape and I was able to shovel it in.”

A potential Flames goal by Andrew Mangiapane at 4:10 of the third was disallowed on a successful challenge after video review confirmed Elias Lindholm was offside.

NOTES: Zary is the first Flames player to have at least five points through his first six games or fewer since Monahan had five points (three goals, two assists) in his first four NHL games for the Flames in 2013-14. … Lindstrom, who was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Sunday, played instead of Jordan Harris, who is day to day because of an upper-body injury.