CALGARY — Mikael Backlund made the most of his chance to get back into the Calgary Flames lineup Friday.
On a night his team desperately needed somebody to step up to keep their playoff hopes in reality, everybody came through in Friday night’s 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks.
Especially the rookie Backlund, who’d spent the previous six outings in the press box a healthy scratch.
The 2007 first-round draft choice set up goals on successive shifts to help the Flames pull away and claim a second straight victory.
With the score 2-1 nearing the midway point, Backlund’s shot from the slot was stopped by Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov, but Nigel Dawes was on the spot for the rebound. The play was practically duplicated less than two minutes later when Eric Nystrom scored the garbage goal to make it a 4-1 count.
But taking the good with the bad, Backlund had a “whoops” moment early in the third period when he made a play which led to Manny Malhotra’s goal to bring San Jose within two.
Backlund tried to slide the puck to Calgary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff only to watch in horror as it went past the goalie and into the crease. Malhotra chipped it into the open net to make it a 4-2 game.
Turned out to be no problem for the Flames — albeit with some nailbiting final moments when Dan Boyle scored to bring the Sharks within one with less than two minutes remaining.
Calgary hung on to beat the suddenly toothless Sharks with as complete an effort as seen in the Saddledome this season to improve to 36-26-9.
On a night they figured a win would be necessary to remain a single point back of the Detroit Red Wings, who were up in Edmonton facing the last-place Oilers, the Flames did all the things needed to win their second straight outing.
They scored early on Nabokov, whose game has become shaky since the Olympic Games.
They kept most of the Great Whites in check.
They had the kind of emotion followers have been begging to see all season, and earned plenty of roars from a fan base which has made no bones this season when the efforts weren’t up to snuff this season.
Looking for a quick start against a Sharks team which had played the night before, Jarome Iginla opened the scoring just over three minutes into the affair to start the fun.
A few seconds after the hosts failed to convert on an early powerplay, Matt Stajan threaded a cross-crease pass to the Calgary captain, and Iginla had an easy tap-in for his 32nd goal of the season
Daymond Langkow doubled the lead midway before the nine-minute mark of the opening frame.
Dany Heatley put San Jose on the board early in the second period, but that just set the stage for Backlund’s heroics while teaming up with his linemates.
Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 25 shots to record the win.
Nabokov stopped 20 pucks.
San Jose (43-18-10) has now lost four straight in regulation and five straight overall, which has put a crimp in the team’s Western Conference title hopes.
Calgary plays Sunday afternoon in Minnesota against the Wild.
randy.sportak@sunmedia.ca
