CALGARY — With two of the Calgary Flames' three highest-paid forwards mired in prolonged slumps, coach Ryan Huska flip-flopped their lines on Sunday and the shuffle paid off.
Left-wingers Andrew Mangiapane, with three helpers, and Jonathan Huberdeau, with the other set up, produced all four primary assists as the Flames outlasted the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3.
Tied 1-1, the Flames took their first lead and one they wouldn't relinquish at 7:29 of the third period when Huberdeau threaded a pass through the slot to Dennis Gilbert skating in from the blue line and he ripped his first goal of the season past Samuel Ersson.
“Huby had it and we know what kind of great vision he has, such a good passer, and he found me and I just got it over the goalie's shoulder,” Gilbert said. “We get those in practice all the time from him and it was just a matter of time until he was going to get clicking for us.”
Nazem Kadri, after taking a feed from Mangiapane who raced up ice to join him on a two-on-one, made it a two-goal lead at 14:29 sending a shot just inside the post.
After Bobby Brink got the visitors back within one with the goalie pulled at 16:36, Mangiapane's hard work on the forecheck set up Blake Coleman's empty-net goal at 17:42.
“It's good for, obviously, my confidence levels. Just have a good game and I think of late, I've been trending in the right direction,” said Mangiapane, who entered the night with just three points (one goal, two assists) in his previous 12 games.
“There's some plays where you just got to keep building, that's just how it is. Just gotta keep working hard and tonight it paid off for me.”
Coleman's goal coming in career game No. 500 would end up the winner as with the goalie pulled again, Egor Zamula scored at 18:36 setting up a thrilling finish.
“It's confidence. Just making the plays when they're there. I cannot complicate it on myself,” said Huberdeau, who had failed to pick up a point in the first 12 games of December in the longest drought of his career.
“That's what I did tonight. I've just got to build on that and do the same thing over and over.”
Mangiapane was moved by coach Ryan Huska back on to a line with Mikael Backlund, who scored Calgary's first goal, and Coleman. That trio has played together before, but not for a long time.
In the flip-flop of left wingers, Huberdeau joined Elias Lindhom and Yegor Sharangovich and that new-look trio created three good scoring chances in the first period, only to be thwarted by Ersson.
"Their work was there, their compete was there, and it's nice that guys that we expect to generate get rewarded when they're putting in the proper effort," said Huska.
"For two guys that have been struggling a little bit, they will, I'm sure, enjoy tonight a little bit more, and then on the plane tomorrow, it's just a nicer flight for guys like that."
Making his fifth consecutive start for Calgary (15-6-5), Jacob Markstrom had 27 stops to improve to 9-10-2.
Rasmus Ristolainen also scored for Philadelphia (19-12-5). The regulation loss snaps the Flyers' nine-game road points streak, which had been their longest such streak since 2005-06 when they went 12-0-2.
“Every now and again we're going to have games like this,” said Ersson, who had 28 saves to fall to 9-5-2. “It's about finding ways to win games and today we came up short, but I think, as we showed at the end, that we push and we have that mentality that we don't give in and we don't give up.
"Obviously a tough loss but some good things to take with us."
Ersson had been 8-1-1 in his previous 10 starts.
"I don't think anything went our way and the only reason we stayed in the game at the end was our goaltender," said Ristolainen, whose goal was his first of the season.
Philadelphia lost in regulation for just the third time (16-3-1) when scoring the first goal, which is the third best record in the league.
"No quitting at the end. Too bad we didn't show up the first two periods,” said Flyers centre Sean Couturier.
“I think we came out good the first five, 10 minutes and then we stopped executing, stopped paying attention to details and losing coverage of guys and started giving up some chances. And then it was just an uphill battle from there."
Philadelphia opened the scoring at 9:44 of the first period when Ryan Poehling got the puck in the corner and spotted Ristolainen sneaking in from the blue line and he fired into the open net before Markstrom could get across.
The score remained that way until Calgary tied it at 18:21 of the second period.
From the same spot on the ice where Poehling set up the opening goal, Mangiapane sent a pass into the slot that Backlund one-timed over Ersson's glove.
COLEMAN'S 500TH
Coleman is just the fourth player from the state of Texas to reach 500 NHL points. Leading the team with 13 goals and 26 points through 36 games, he's on pace for a career best season.
LINEUP SHUFFLES
In addition to the changes up front, the Flames also broke up the defensive pairing of Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar, who have been together most of the season, and played Andersson with Gilbert while Weegar lined up alongside Jordan Oesterle, who returned after missing four games as a healthy scratch.
UP NEXT
Flyers: Wrap up their four-game road trip in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Flames: Begin a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Minnesota.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2023.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
