Flames hand Maple Leafs third straight loss, sixth in seven games

TORONTO --The Calgary Flames won for the fourth time in five games since Darryl Sutter took over as coach, 4-3 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.

"I thought we played really well, checked well, and gave up very little odd-man rushes," Sutter said. "It was not a track-meet game at all. We have a team that can play together, and if we just eliminate little mistakes in our game and stay out of the penalty box, we can play with them."
It was the third straight loss for the Maple Leafs and sixth in their past seven games.
"You want it to flip and get the results, but that doesn't do us any good," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We've got to just regroup here and recognize this as an opportunity for us to realize how it is we need to play and how consistent we need to be."

Matthew Tkachuk ended an eight-game goal drought, Rasmus Andersson had two assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves for the Flames (15-13-3).
Calgary was coming off its only loss since Sutter made his debut March 11, 7-3 to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. He replaced Geoff Ward, who was fired March 4.
Jason Spezza, Alex Kerfoot and Mitchell Marner scored, and Frederik Andersen made 14 saves for the Maple Leafs (19-10-2).
"We got a pretty good group in there," said Toronto forward Wayne Simmonds, who returned after missing 18 games with a broken wrist. "We know we're doing some good things, but at the same time, we're having these little mistakes that are ending up in the back of our net. We've got to make sure that we're playing a full 60 minutes; not 50, not 55."
Andersen is 1-5-0 with a 3.84 goals-against average and .862 save percentage in his past six games.
"It's difficult on a night like tonight when everything seems to find its way through traffic," Andersen said. "I know personally I didn't lose my abilities to play good. Same goes for our team. You want to get out of this slump here and start winning games."
Mark Giordano gave the Flames a 4-3 lead at 12:33 of the second period, three seconds into a power play, when his shot from the point went in off defenseman Jake Muzzin in the slot.
Calgary was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill, including two in the third period after Mikael Backlund was called for slashing Simmonds at 7:33 and Derek Ryan for holding Zach Hyman at 12:06.
"Definitely the penalty kill (felt better than the power-play goal) for me," Giordano said. "They both feel really good for me, not going to lie, I've got to be honest. But it's a pretty good power play over there, they've got some elite players who can make plays, and I thought we did a good job of limiting them and trying to block shots when we could and get in lanes when we could."

The teams will play again here Saturday.
Tkachuk gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 1:19 of the first period when his shot from the top of the right face-off circle went in off defenseman Travis Dermott at the top of the goal crease.
Ryan made it 2-0 at 7:33 with a one-timer from above the left hash marks off a pass from Andersson.
Spezza scored from the slot at 12:47 to cut the lead to 2-1.
Chris Tanev put Calgary up 3-1 at 18:55, but Kerfoot scored with 25 seconds left in the first to cut it to 3-2.
"It was nice to get the first one, but we've got to do a better job of when we get the first one, keep building off that lead and don't let them back into it," Tkachuk said.
Marner tied it 3-3 at 3:48 of the second period when he got to a loose puck along the boards, skated into the slot, and shot over Markstrom's glove.
"We understand what kind of team they are and we didn't give the lead away," Sutter said. "Toronto played hard for that, and we played hard too."
NOTES: Simmonds was plus-1 with an assist, six hits and one shot on goal in 10:36 in his first game since Feb. 6. ... Forward
Alex Galchenyuk
was minus-2 with three shots on goal and three hits in 11:19 in his Maple Leafs debut.