Sean Monahan scores 100th NHL goal in Flames win

TAMPA -- Sean Monahan scored his 100th NHL goal to help the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.
Dougie Hamilton and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames (31-26-4), who are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games. Brian Elliott made 23 saves.
"We got down 1-0 off a tip from the point and the guys really didn't get too low on it and we just battled back and scored a big goal and a couple unanswered there," Elliott said. "You know sometimes it comes together and guys are clicking a little bit and it showed tonight."

WATCH: All Flames vs. Lightning highlights
Vladislav Namestnikov and Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning (27-25-8), who lost in regulation for the first time in the past eight games (5-1-2). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.
Hamilton's 10th goal came off of a snap shot from the left circle to give the Flames a 3-1 lead with 2:58 remaining in the third period.
Kucherov made it 3-2 with 1:13 remaining when he scored his 23rd goal on a power play with a shot from the right circle off an assist from Victor Hedman.
"It hurts a lot," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "We're leaving points on the table. We did have a good run. I think, going forward, we realize that now we have a ton of divisional games coming up. Those are going to be huge. We'll learn from tonight. We'll take what we can. We just have to come prepared, regardless of the team we're playing."

Monahan gave the Flames a 2-1 lead with his 20th goal of the season at 6:25 of the second period. Johnny Gaudreau put a slap shot toward the goal and Monahan fought off Hedman to tip the puck off the post past Vasilevskiy.
"It was nice to get [my 100th goal] and nice to get it in a win," Monahan said. "Within this dressing room we continue to get better day-by-day and we have to look forward to the next game now."
Backlund tied the game 1-1 on his 18th goal at 5:04 with a tip from close range off a shot from Mark Giordano.
Hamilton had an assist on each goal.
Namestnikov gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 6:17 of the first period when he tipped a shot from Braydon Coburn past Elliott.
"I just thought they're a good defensive team," Namestnikov said. "We had trouble getting through the neutral zone with too many turnovers. At the end of the day, they scored one more goal than us."

Goal of the game

Monahan reached his milestone with some great stick work to knock down Gaudreau's shot and gather the puck to beat Vasilevskiy on the open side.

Save of the game

Vasilevskiy made a save on Troy Brouwer on a breakaway at 13:04 of the first period but fell to 1-8-3 in his past 12 starts.
"It's a tough league to win in," Killorn said. "I feel bad. We want to win games for him so hopefully we can do that next time he's in net."

Unsung performance of the game

Flames defenseman Michael Stone had four hits and three blocked shots in 17:46 of ice time.

Highlight of the game

The Flames were able to cycle the puck on Hamilton's game-winner. Frolik carried it into the zone and Backlund set up Hamilton for a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Vasilevskiy on the near post.

They said it

"This is the time of year you need to get to the net and goals are going to be ugly and if you look at the chances in the first they got a tip, and then you look at our two goals, the same thing." -- Flames coach Glen Gulutzan
"We just didn't shoot pucks. That was it. We had 22 shot attempts after two periods. You should have that after 10 minutes, 15 minutes in a game. There wasn't that urgency to score. It was an easy night for their goaltender tonight." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin was scratched because of an illness and replaced by Cory Conacher in the lineup. Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman played in his 600th NHL game. … Elliott is 7-2-1 against the Lightning in 11 starts. Flames forward Michael Frolik had an assist for his 300th NHL point.

What's next

Flames: At the Florida Panthers on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, SNW, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Ottawa Senators on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)