By Canadian Press

Red Hot: Monahan has first two-goal game of season in Flames’ 5-1 win over Wild

Feb 1, 2017 | 11:00 PM

CALGARY — Sean Monahan picked a great time to earn his first two-goal game of the season.

The 22-year-old forward scored a pair of power-play goals, including the winner in the third period, to lead the Calgary Flames to a 5-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“It’s that time of the year where you don’t get as many man advantages so they are crucial and you’ve got to find ways of putting the puck in the back of the net and we did that tonight,” said Monahan, who has scored eight goals in his past nine games. “When you play with good players you get a lot of opportunities.

“Sometimes good things happen. Right now I’m getting some good looks and I’m going to try and continue to work hard and be there for the team.”

Deryk Engelland had a goal and an assist for the Flames (26-24-3), who have won back-to-back games after losing their previous four.

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“They played last night and we knew that, so we had to come out with a big start,” said Engelland, who praised goalie Brian Elliott for his 28-save performance. “Moose was huge at key times at the game to keep us up and when we got the chances, we put it in the back of the net.”

Alex Chiasson and Micheal Ferland also scored for the Flames, who start a three-game road trip on Friday in New Jersey against the Devils.

Jason Zucker replied for the Wild (33-12-5), who had won three in a row and five of their past six.

“They played better than us,” said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team beat the Oilers 5-2 one night earlier in Edmonton. “I thought going into the third period we still had a shot at it, but they came out strong in the third, which is usually a forte of ours and we didn’t get it done.”

Goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped 31 shots for the Wild, who had gone 12-0-2 in their past 14 road games.

“It’s a long season,” said Dubnyk, whose streak of nine straight road wins was also snapped. “It’s not going to be perfect all the time. All we’ve got to do is understand why that game was 5-1 and get back to playing how we want to.”

Rookie forward Matthew Tkachuk gave the Flames a spark three and a half minutes into the game when he flattened Wild centre Eric Staal with a shoulder check in the Calgary zone.

The Flames opened the scoring at 4:26 when Sam Bennett banked a shot off Chiasson’s torso and past Dubnyk.

Monahan then put Calgary up 2-0 at 8:09 when he deposited a rebound into the net behind Dubnyk.

Parise appeared to pull Minnesota within a goal at 11:37 of the second when he jammed a loose puck in the crease into the net, but the goal was disallowed because the veteran Wild forward made contact with Elliott.

“I don’t think so,” said Parise when asked if the goal should have counted. “I’d love to say yeah, but if that happened to our guy, I think we’d all be pretty upset.”

Zucker tapped a backhand pass from Mikael Granlund past Elliott at 12:40. After blocking a shot in the defensive zone, Zucker raced the length of the ice to score his 16th goal of the season.

Monahan scored his second of the game and team-leading 18th of the season at 6:19 of the third when he took a pass from Dennis Wideman and snapped a shot to the top corner over the left shoulder of Dubnyk, who was screened by Brouwer on the play.

Engelland snapped a shot from the point through traffic past Dubnyk 1:36 later before Ferland rounded out the scoring at 13:47

Notes: Granlund has recorded at least one point in 11 straight games to tie Artem Anisimov of the Chicago Blackhawks for the longest streak in the NHL this season. It’s also a franchise record for the Wild. … Brouwer snapped a 10-game pointless drought, dating back to Dec. 19, with his assist on Monahan’s goal. … After allowing the first goal in nine straight games, the Flames have now opened the scoring in their past two outings.

Laurence Heinen, The Canadian Press