Tkachuk scores 40th goal, 100th point, Flames top Stars to clinch Pacific

CALGARY --Matthew Tkachuk scored his 40th goal and 100th point of the season, and the Calgary Flames clinched the top seed in the Pacific Division with a 4-2 win against the Dallas Stars at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

Andrew Mangiapane had a goal and an assist, Rasmus Andersson had two assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves for the Flames (48-20-10), who are 8-1-1 in the past 10 games.
"We realize that home ice is very important, and to get as many games at home, and to get the majority of the games in a series in your own building, that's huge for us," Tkachuk said. "To clinch the division, that's great, but we're not stopping there. We have bigger goals for our team."
Jason Robertson and Luke Glendening scored, and Jake Oettinger made 33 saves for the Stars (43-30-5), who have lost three in a row and four of five. They remain two points back of the Nashville Predators for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and two points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card.
"I think we would like to have locked up our spot already," Oettinger said. "This road trip, we kind of gave some other teams some life. Last season we were in the same position but we were sitting around on our phones watching other teams and hoping they would win for us. Now we don't have to do that. There's no one else to blame. It's in our hands."

Chris Tanev put Calgary up 3-2 at 13:05 of the third period when his point shot deflected off Glendening.
"They're a big, heavy team," Oettinger said. "A lot of guys make their money around the net. I obviously knew that coming into this game. Sometimes when you throw the puck at the net good stuff happens."
The goal came after Glendening tied it 2-2 at 5:29 when he scored on a rebound following up a breakaway attempt by Fredrik Karlstrom, who made his NHL debut. It was Glendening's first goal since March 2 (25 games).
Mangiapane scored into an empty net with 25 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.
"We're not satisfied," Flames forward Mikael Backlund said. "We want to do something really big here, we know we can do it. It's an accomplishment to win the division. It's a long season, so the guys have done a great job and I'm really proud of our team."
Tkachuk gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 10:06 of the second period with a power-play goal he swept by Oettinger from near the goal line. He is the first Flames player to reach 40 goals since Jarome Iginla scored 43 in 2010-11.
"I was probably more excited about the 40 [goals], to be completely honest," said Tkachuk, who has scored eight points (three goals, five assists) in a four-game point streak. "But just the time of the game, everything, no score, to get the first one. Just super excited. The coolest part for me was the guys coming in, they were way more excited than I was, and I didn't think that could be possible."

Robertson tied it 1-1 at 11:53 when he shot by Markstrom from just inside the left circle on the power play.
Noah Hanifin scored 20 seconds into the third period to put the Flames up 2-1.
"If we've got to do it the hard way, well, we're going to do it the hard way," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. "We're going to win the home games. We're going to do it. We get back to a great atmosphere in our rink, and we've got four home games. We still control our own destiny. We just have to take full advantage of it. And we're going to."
NOTES:The division title is Calgary's eighth in its history and first since 2018-19. ... It's the third time in NHL history at least three United States-born players have scored 100 points in a season (Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Auston Matthews; 1992-93: Pat LaFontaine, Kevin Stevens, Jeremy Roenick, Craig Janney; 1991-92: Stevens, Roenick, Brian Leetch). … Tkachuk and Gaudreau are the fourth set of Calgary teammates to reach 100 points in a season, joining Bob MacMillan and Guy Chouinard in 1978-79, Al MacInnis and Theo Fleury in 1990-91 and Kakan Loob and Mike Bullard in 1987-88. … Flames forward Tyler Toffoli had an assist, his 200th in the NHL. … Hanifin has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in the past eight games. … Pavelski got his 50th assist, the first time in 16 NHL seasons he had that many. … Karlstrom played 7:46 after being recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Sunday.