Hurricanes douse Flames for first win
CALGARY, Alberta -- Carolina goaltender Eddie Lack made 26 saves for his fifth win in seven career starts against Calgary as the Hurricanes defeated the Flames 4-2 on Thursday night for their first win of the season.
Teuvo Teravainen, Victor Rask, Viktor Stalberg and Jeff Skinner scored for Carolina (1-1-2), which is starting the season with a six-game road trip.
Johnny Gaudreau, who signed a six-year $40.5 million contract the day before the season began, scored his first of the season for Calgary (1-3-1). Troy Brouwer also scored for the Flames.
Lack, who previously also played for the Vancouver Canucks, had a 1.99 goals against average against Calgary coming into the game. He was acquired by Carolina prior to the 2015-16 season.
Brian Elliott, who was acquired from St. Louis in the offseason as Calgary looked to strengthen their goaltending, made 31 stops but surrendered two soft goals -- to Rask and Stalberg -- and is winless in three games.
Teravainen popped his own rebound past Elliott to open the scoring at 7:55 and Rask's soft wrister found the net from the top of the faceoff circle through a long screen on the power play at 16:12.
The Flames had plenty of opportunity in the opening 20 minutes with eight power-play minutes, four of them coming on a double minor for high sticking when Lee Stempniak clipped Flames captain Mark Giordano under the eye with an accidental high stick.
Stalberg got in behind the Flames defense at Calgary's blue line, took a nice feed from Klas Dahlbeck and slipped a weak backhand past Elliott to make it 3-0 at 4:55 the second period.
Brouwer woke up the listless Flames with just 1:53 left in the second. He burst in on his off-wing and snapped a shot over Lack's stick-side.
NOTES: Flames' 2016 first round pick Matthew Tkachuk played his fifth game Thursday, inching closer to the ninth he is allowed before Calgary must decide on whether to send him back to junior. The left-winger scored his first NHL goal in Tuesday's overtime victory over Buffalo. ... Calgary scratches were D Dennis Wideman, D Nicklas Grossmann and C Freddie Hamilton. ... Carolina scratches were D Jakub Nakladal, C Andrej Nestrasil and RW Martin Frk. ... The Flames have no injuries to report through the first five games. ... The Hurricanes will be without D Ryan Murphy for 3-to-4 weeks because of a lower body injury. ... Carolina won't play its first home game until Oct. 28. They wrap up a six-game road trip to start the season with games in Philadelphia on Saturday and Detroit on Tuesday. ... The Hurricanes had gone 0-6-1 since their last win in Calgary (2002).