Tkachuk scores three points, Flames ease past Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Rasmus Andersson had a goal and an assist, and Dan Vladar made 23 saves for the Flames (37-16-8), who bounced back from a 1-0 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday and are 4-1-1 in their past six games.
Calgary was eager to avenge a 7-1 loss at Vancouver on Feb. 24.
"We pretty much got embarrassed that night and this is our last game of the regular season here in this rink so we had one more crack at it to get them back and I thought the first period was big," Tkachuk said. "Looking at the small picture, we just want to come in and have a good first few shifts each and come out with the lead and I thought we did that and honestly rolled from there."
The Flames changed all four forward lines after the loss to the Sabres and outshot the Canucks 16-4 in the first period while jumping out to a 3-0 lead.
"Last night's game was probably one of the, if not the, worst game of the year, so I thought it helped and definitely helped in our first period," Tkachuk said.
Said Flames coach Darryl Sutter, "We're a team that has to kill plays. If we're going to try to make fancy plays and long plays, that don't work for our team. It's one of the reasons we changed lines up. There's getting to be too many 70-footers and home runs. You've got to touch all the bases. Tonight we had more guys doing it."

Thatcher Demko gave up four goals on 29 shots before being pulled after the second period for the Canucks (30-26-7), who have lost four of their past five games (1-3-1). Jaroslav Halak made 14 saves in relief in the third period.
"I wanted to save [Demko]," coach Bruce Boudreau said of the switch. "[He] is in there facing breakaway after breakaway and he doesn't deserve that. He's been too good for us."
Noah Hanifin put Calgary ahead 1-0 at 4:45 of the first period with a wrist shot off the rush from the left face-off dot after being sent on a partial break by Calle Jarnkrok. It was Jarnkrok's his first point in his second game for the Flames since being acquired in a trade with the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday.
"[Jarnkrok] came in late the other night and has two games under his belt already, and I thought especially tonight, he looked really good," Tkachuk said.

Tkachuk scored on a spin and shoot from the left hash mark to make it 2-0 at 7:46, and Andersson made it 3-0 at 13:51 with a wrist shot glove side from the right face-off circle off a drop pass from Tkachuk on the rush.
It was Andersson's 100th NHL point (15 goals, 85 assists) in his 278th game.
"Obviously, a great play by [Tkachuk], and so it's nice to get a goal too, felt like that was long time ago," Andersson said. "It was nice to get that point."
Vancouver had the first six shots of the second period, but Tyler Myers lost the puck in the neutral zone and Elias Lindholm made it 4-0 on a breakaway at 4:29.
"Obviously, we wanted to come out hard in the second period. Maybe if those go in it's a different story," Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. "But when you're down 3-0 going into the second, especially against a team like that, it's hard to come back."
Johnny Gaudreau made it 5-0 on a power play at 6:28 of the third period.
Matthew Highmore made it 5-1 on a deflection at 7:37, and Brock Boeser scored on the power play at 17:14 for the 5-2 final.

"They're a [heck] of a team, but we made them look pretty good tonight also," Canucks forward J.T. Miller said. "They're one of the best teams in the League top to bottom, no doubt, but we play the way we do like that, we're seeing it too often creep into our game where the third period means nothing."
NOTES: It was the second game this season Sutter split up his top line of Gaudreau, Lindholm and Tkachuk. … Flames forward Milan Lucic left warmups early after being hit in the head with a puck but played 15:22 and had five hits, including one that led to the Myers turnover on the Lindholm goal. … Vancouver forward Nils Hoglander missed his second game with a lower-body injury sustained in practice Wednesday and isn't expected to play against Buffalo on Sunday.