Backlund scores twice, Flames defeat Canadiens

CALGARY -- Mikael Backlund had two goals and an assist to help the Calgary Flames to a 5-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, and MacKenzie Weegar had three assists for the Flames (33-29-5), who have won two straight after being outscored 18-5 in their previous three games (0-3-0). Dustin Wolf made 36 saves.

"We're a lot more excited today than we were after that road trip and the Colorado game (a 6-2 loss on Tuesday)," Backlund said. "It was tough losing those three games. We had some good meetings and a couple optional or nonskates between games, and guys got a little more energized. We've played two good games here. Now we're taking it day by day and trying to focus on the next game and see where it takes us."

Cole Caufield and David Savard scored, and Cayden Primeau made 23 saves for the Canadiens (25-31-11), who have lost four of five.

"Just keep going, I think," Caufield said. "We have spurts where we're really good. Just have to look at those things and find what we can do better. A lot of guys in this room want it a little bit more, and as long as we do that, we're headed in the right direction."

Montreal announced before the game that coach Martin St. Louis will be away from the team indefinitely because of family reasons. Assistant coach Trevor Letowski was behind the bench and will assume the head coaching duties for the time being.

"It was obviously different with ‘Marty’ not being here, but we have a great group in here, a lot of good coaches," Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. "It was business as usual. Obviously, missing him and hoping and wishing for the best for him."

Backlund put Calgary up 1-0 at 16:23 of the first period when he tipped Weegar's point shot past Primeau on a power play.

Backlund scored again 11 seconds into the second period to extend the lead to 2-0. He buried a no-look centering pass from Blake Coleman from below the goal line for his 200th NHL goal.

"It feels special scoring 200 goals, for sure, in this league," Backlund said. "I put in a lot of work in my life to get to the NHL, and to be able to score 200 goals is special. It took longer ... I got close there in early January, scoring 196 or 197 or something like that, and it seemed to take forever to get to 200. It feels really good to get it. It's special to get all the goals here in Calgary, too. Some good company here in the organization's history."

Martin Pospisil pushed it to 3-0 at 7:41 when he tapped a cross-crease pass from Jonathan Huberdeau over the goal line.

"I'm just trying to make plays out there," Huberdeau said. "I know fans want me to shoot. I can hear it from the crowd. That's what I do. It was nice. I think 'Pospi' had an empty net, so probably this one was good."

Caufield pulled Montreal to within 3-1 at 10:34 when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Suzuki over Wolf's outstretched right pad. Caufield, who hadn't scored in 12 straight, has scored at least 20 goals in each of his first three full NHL seasons.

Savard cut it to 3-2 at 18:25 with a slap shot through a screen from the point.

Kadri pushed it to 4-2 at 1:01 of the third period. He redirected a centering pass from Huberdeau between Primeau's legs six seconds into a power play.

Daniil Miromanov scored on the rebound of Weegar's initial shot at 3:54 for the 5-2 final.

"I mean, we finish the second pretty good," Caufield said. "Tough call on that [Juraj Slafkovsky] penalty (leading to the fourth Calgary goal), but the game goes on. They score, we score. ... It doesn't really matter. We had our looks, for sure. I thought we played a pretty good game. Some mistakes in the D-zone kind of cost us a little bit. We had our looks."

NOTES: Backlund is the 11th player in Flames history to score 200 goals. He has 21 multigoal games in the NHL. ... Flames forward A.J. Greer had two hits and one blocked shot in 8:30 of ice time in his return after missing 18 games because of a fractured foot. … Wolf has won consecutive games for the first time in the NHL. ... Slafkovsky has five points (one goal, four assists) during a four-game point streak. … Caufield is the sixth player in Canadiens history to have three 20-goal seasons before the age of 24. The others are Stephane Richer, Guy Lafleur, Bernie Geoffrion, Claude Lemieux and Henri Richard.