Gaudreau scored 7:44 into the third period to give Calgary a 2-1 lead. His goal came after hitting the crossbar at 4:09 of the second period, the post on a wraparound at 15:45, and the post on a wrist shot from the slot 1:45 into the third.
"It was just nice to finally put one in there," said Gaudreau, who has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past seven games. "I don't know how it went in. I mean, through his skate and knee ... just the way I think I was going to get one that game if I was going to get one. It was going to be a greasy one like that."
Gaudreau's power-play goal followed a blocker save by Smith on Dustin Brown 45 seconds earlier.
"You could arguably say that save won us the game," Gaudreau said. "It could be 2-1 them going into the last 10 minutes of the game. They're a really good defensive-structured team. It could've turned the game the other way. Huge save for him. We come down and score on the power play and next thing you know we get the two points. Huge, huge save there."
Backlund scored into an empty net at 19:28 to make it 3-1, and Monahan scored into an empty net with eight seconds left.
Backlund scored on the game's first shot 36 seconds into the first period to put the Flames up 1-0.
"Obviously it's not ideal to put the guys down 1-0," Petersen said. "That part's on me, but luckily we had the whole game to battle back, and they did, so it's good."
Kempe tied it 1-1 when he one-timed a pass from Austin Wagner at 13:41 of the second period.
"Through 40 (minutes) it didn't seem like much was going on," Smith said. "It was a pretty boring game to be honest. But saying that, that can lead to some inconsistencies in your game, and I thought our guys did a really good job of sticking with it. That's a team … they've been like that for how long now? Just a team that waits for you to make a mistake and make you pay. Tonight the guys did a really good job just being patient and keep doing what we were doing."
