Brian Elliott’s return to Calgary went much better than his last playoff game in the city.
Scott Laughton on Monday scored twice and Elliott made 43 saves as the Philadelphia Flyers snapped a 10-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
“That’s a big streak to end and in doing it the way we did tonight with punctuation was really good for our group,” Elliott said.
Elliott lasted just 5 minutes, 38 seconds during Game 4 of Calgary’s opening-round playoff series with Anaheim last season before being pulled. The Ducks went on to win 3-1 to sweep the series and Elliott left in the summer as a free agent.
“Whenever you’re coming to a city you lived in for a year, and played and enjoyed yourself, you really look at it as an opportunity to show your stuff again one last time,” he said.
Calgary held a wide edge in play, outshooting Philadelphia 45 to 21, but the opportunistic Flyers scored three times in a 1:11 span of the second period to break open a 1-1 game.
Valtteri Filppula, Michael Raffl and Wayne Simmonds also scored for Philadelphia (9-11-7), while Jakub Voracek had three assists.
The Flyers have points in six of their past 11 games because five of the losses during their skid came in overtime.
“Guys have worked real hard and more importantly than that, guys have really stuck together through a pretty tough stretch here,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said.
Troy Brouwer, with his first of the season, and Sean Monahan scored for Calgary (14-12-1).
The Flames lost three of four on their homestand and now head east for games on back-to-back nights in Toronto and Montreal starting today.
Mike Smith made 16 saves in defeat.
“Any time you lose there is cause for concern, but there are no big issues,” Brouwer said. “Our effort was there. It was one of those nights that we weren’t rewarded.”
Flames defenseman Travis Hamonic received a match penalty and a game misconduct in the third period for his open-ice hit to the head on Dale Weise, who left the game briefly, but later returned.
“Those hits happen. It’s unfortunate,” Hamonic said. “I felt like I stayed in my tracks and I kept my arm down. I was going for his chest and he kind of moves, not jumps, but moves out of the way, maybe to try and protect himself or whatever it is and you kind of hit each other, but no malicious attempt.”
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