Flames top Islanders for seventh straight win

CALGARY -- Sean Monahan had a goal and an assist, and Brian Elliott made 33 saves to give the Calgary Flames a season-high seventh straight win, 5-2 against the New York Islanders at Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday.
The Flames (36-26-4) have points in a season-high nine straight games (8-0-1), and are 12-2-1 in the past 15.
"It's big," Monahan said. "It's an important time of year. Everyone's buying in right now and everyone's contributing. [Elliott] has been playing great and keeping us in games here. This is a great stretch."

WATCH: All Flames vs. Islanders highlights
Michael Frolik, TJ Brodie, Micheal Ferland, and Kris Versteeg also scored for Calgary, which holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Flames lead the Los Angeles Kings, who hold the second wild card, by eight points.
"We're going through a good streak here," Calgary captain Mark Giordano said. "You have to pile on as many points as you can on these streaks, but keep trying to get better."
John Tavares and Jason Chimera scored, and Thomas Greiss and J-F Berube combined to make 32 saves for the Islanders (30-23-11), who are 3-2-1 through six games of a season-high nine-game road trip.
"Obviously playing our third in three-and-a-half days, sometimes you've just got to keep it simple early, get our legs going and get yourselves involved," Tavares said. "They're playing with a lot of confidence and they had some jump playing at home with the way they've been playing."
Calgary scored four goals in a span of five shots late in the first period to take a 4-0 lead.

Frolik put the Flames up 1-0 on Calgary's 17th shot of the period at 14:56, and Brodie made it 2-0 when he banked a centering pass off Greiss from behind the net at 16:28. Ferland scored on Greiss at 17:10 to give the Flames a 3-0 lead.
Monahan pushed the lead to 4-0 with 23.3 seconds remaining in the period.
"They were coming pretty hard, that's to be expected," Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic said. "It's hard to get down four-rip in the first and make a comeback."
Tavares scored to cut the lead to 4-1 at 8:30 of the second period. He has four goals and four assists in his past nine games.
Berube started the second and made nine saves in the period. Greiss finished with 17 saves.
Versteeg put Calgary up 5-1 at 6:58 of the third period, but Chimera scored to pull the Islanders back within three with a shot by Elliott's glove at 11:32.
"They didn't let up," Monahan said. "They're a good team, so I think we might've taken our foot of the gas a little bit and we definitely shouldn't have."

Goal of the game

Versteeg finished a give-and-go with Sam Bennett on a 3-on-1 by one-timing a shot over Berube's shoulder.
"It was a play to him and I kind of expected it back and he put it back and I just shot it," Versteeg said.

Save of the game

Greiss made a glove save on Monahan at 8:12 of the first period after a spinning setup in the slot by Versteeg with the Flames on the power play.

Video: NYI@CGY: Greiss denies Monahan's chance in front

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Highlight of the game

Johnny Gaudreau set up Monahan with a cross-slot pass on an odd-man rush that Monahan snapped by a diving Greiss.
"That was just a tap-in," Monahan said. "It's a nice play there by Johnny. You have to be ready for those. It's nice to get those kind of goals."

Unsung performance of the game

Giordano laid down to block Cal Clutterbuck's shot on an Islanders shorthanded rush at 13:52 of the second period with Calgary leading 4-0. Giordano, who played 20:05, finished with two blocked shots.

They said it

"It's fun. You come to the rink…you play any sport when you're winning the atmosphere is great. Right now we're confident but we're not overconfident. We know we've still got a lot of work to do and we haven't proven anything." -- Flames center Sean Monahan
"We kind of left [Greiss] out to dry. There were some uncharacteristic mistakes by our group. It's hard to get down 4-0 at this time of the year at any point of the game, let alone in the first period. It's frustrating -- move on, that's all you can do." -- Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic

Need to know

Elliott is 10-1-1 in his past 12 games. With an assist on Frolik's goal, Flames center Mikael Backlund matched his previous NHL-high with 47 points set last season. Backlund has five goals and three assists in his past seven games. … Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk did not play because of a lower-body injury sustained in a 2-1 shootout loss at the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.

What's next

Islanders: At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)
Flames: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, SNE, RDS, NHL.TV)