Flames defeat Panthers, spoil Tkachuk's return to Calgary

CALGARY -- Dillon Dube had a goal and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 6-2 win against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Andrew Mangiapane, Rasmus Andersson and Tyler Toffoli each had a goal and an assist for the Flames (10-9-3), who ended a three-game skid in the first of a five-game homestand. Dan Vladar made 31 saves.
"I think it was a good way for us to start the week and start the homestand," Dube said. "It was our goal tonight, whether it was a 1-0 hockey game or whatever the score was, we needed to win and get that home ice advantage for the start of this swing, so it's going to be really good for us."

Nick Cousins and Sam Reinhart scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves for the Panthers (10-9-4), who have lost six of seven (1-3-3), including 4-3 in overtime at the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
"This road trip is very important for us. Three more games," Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "That's three losses in a row. Last two before this night we expected to win those games and they didn't go our way, and we can't let that trickle into today. We want to have better starts."
Tkachuk, who was playing his first game in Calgary since being acquired by Florida in a trade for Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on July 22, was minus-2 with three shots in 21:50 of ice time.
"I was looking forward to this game," Tkachuk said. "It wasn't like we talked about earlier, like I needed this game to close the door on my history here. That wasn't the case at all. That door was closed a long time ago. But it's always going to be nice coming back here and playing for the rest of my career."
Dube scored short-handed 3:05 into the first period to put the Flames up 1-0. Mangiapane toe-dragged Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour on a 2-on-1 before passing to Dube, who redirected the puck by Bobrovsky's glove.

Huberdeau scored on a rebound on the power play to extend the lead to 2-0 at 9:21, and Andersson made it 3-0 at 12:03 when he shot short side over Bobrovsky's left shoulder.
"I think every chance we gave them they capitalized early on," Reinhart said. "It's tough to play catch-up, especially when the energy isn't there. I think you want to come out, especially on a back to back, play simple and get yourself in the game that way. I think we made it too tough on ourselves early on."
Cousins cut the lead to 3-1 at 9:54 of the second period when he deflected Gustav Forsling's wrist shot from the point by Vladar's pad.
Brett Ritchie made it 4-1 at 15:29, banking a sharp-angled shot off Bobrovsky's left pad, but Reinhart cut it to 4-2 with a wrist shot at 16:55.
"I thought in the second, I thought we had a really good second period and took over most of that and got a lot of momentum back," Tkachuk said. "Then we just opened it up way too much for us in the third. That's not what we want to be known for, opening it up and trading chances. Definitely don't want to be leaving 'Bob' out to dry like we did for most of that third, giving up a lot of partial breakaways or breakaways or odd-man's against."

Toffoli pushed it to 5-2 at 15:22 of the third period with a slap shot from the slot, and Mangiapane finished a pass from Dube on a 2-on-0 at 18:54 for the 6-2 final.
"He set me up pretty good [earlier]," Dube said. "2-on-0's can be tricky sometimes though, you overpass sometimes and goalies read it well. I'm happy he scored, otherwise it wouldn't have looked too good, so I'm happy he scored."
NOTES:Tkachuk, the No. 6 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, had 382 points (152 goals, 230 assists) and a plus-85 rating in 431 regular-season games with Calgary. ... Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov missed his third straight game because of illness. … Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad extended his point streak to five games (three goals, four assists) with his 200th NHL assist. … Reinhart has a four-game point streak (two goals, four assists). … Weegar had an assist, his 100th in the NHL.