(AP) — CALGARY, Alberta The Calgary Flames defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday night in their first game back after head coach Martin St. Louis took an indefinite leave of absence due to family matters. Mikael Backlund scored two goals and provided an assist.
After Kent Nilsson (229), Backlund became the second skater in team history to surpass 200 goals in his career. Backlund was born in Sweden. In addition, the captain of the Flames scored 200 goals, making him the 11th player in team history.
“It’s very special to be able to score 200 goals; I’ve worked very hard in my life to get to the NHL,” Backlund remarked.
“I scored 196 and 197 or something close there in early January. Reaching 200 felt pretty fantastic because it seemed to take forever. Particular to achieve all the objectives in Calgary as well. Here in the history of the organization, some worthy firm.
With a goal and an assist, Nazem Kadri led Calgary (33-29-5) to victory for the second straight game. Daniil Miromanov and Martin Pospisil also scored.
With 15 games left in the regular season, the Flames were still in remote postseason contention.
Ryan Huska, the coach of the Flames, stated, “We’ve been that way all year long. Win our next game.” “You could say we stay relevant if we can find a way to win our next game.”
