Monahan's OT goal lifts Flames past Sabres
CALGARY, Alberta -- Center Sean Monahan scored at 2:26 of overtime to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday night.
Monahan took a pass from left winger Johnny Gaudreau and snapped a shot past Buffalo goalie Robin Lehner to give the Flames (1-2-1) their first win of the season.
Right winger Micheal Frolik, left winger Micheal Ferland and rookie left winger Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Flames (1-2-1), while goaltender Chad Johnson made 18 saves against his old team.
Zemgus Girgensons, Ryan O'Reilly and Marcus Foligno scored for the Sabres (1-1-1), while goalie Robin Lehner stopped 30 shots.
Ferland backhanded a shot to the top corner past Lehner a 1:10 of the third period before Foligno replied with a goal for the Sabres at 3:49.
The barrage of goals continued as Tkachuk scored his first NHL goal 1:03 later. Tkachuk took a pass from center Matt Stajan and snapped a shot to the short side past Lehner to tie the score at 3-3.
Tied at 1-1, Calgary had a great opportunity early in the second period when Buffalo defenseman Josh Gorges and left winger Foligno were penalized for separate infractions at the same time to give the Flames an extended two-man advantage.
Only 1:03 into the power play, Flames defenseman Mark Giordano took an interference penalty to end the threat.
The Sabres went up 2-1 on a man advantage of their own at 11:41 of the second on a strange goal. Johnson made the initial save to stop a slap shot off the stick of O'Reilly, but the puck bounced off Flames defenseman Dougie Hamilton and into the net.
During an early power-play opportunity in the first period, Flames right winger Alex Chiasson tipped a shot taken by left winger Ferland on net that Lehner was able to turn aside. Lehner then stopped Ferland's rebound attempt to keep the game scoreless.
Girgensons swatted a nice feed from center Tyler Ennis past Johnson at 7:25 of the first to put the Sabres up 1-0.
The Flames pulled even at 16:12 when Frolik tapped a loose puck in the crease past Lehner, who blocked a point shot by defenseman Brett Kulak before also turning aside a shot by center Mikael Backlund.
NOTES: Sabres C Derek Grant spent last year in the Flames' organization. Although he only had one assist in 15 games with the Flames, Grant led the AHL's Stockton Heat with 45 points (27 goals, 18 assists) in 36 games. ... After being called up from the AHL's Rochester Americans on Saturday, Sabres RW Nicholas Baptiste made his NHL debut on Tuesday in Calgary. He was a plus-1 in 8:50 of ice time covering 14 shifts. ... Buffalo's healthy scratches were D Casey Nelson and RW Hudson Fasching, while LW Evander Kane is out week-to-week with cracked ribs. ... The Flames went with the same lineup that they did in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday, meaning that D Dennis Wideman, D Nicklas Grossmann and C Freddie Hamilton were healthy scratches. ... The Flames announced Monday that they signed G Tom McCollum to a two-year, two-way contract and then assigned him to the AHL's Stockton Heat.