Flames score early, often to double-up Golden Knights

Mikael Backlund scored two goals for the second straight game and Connor Zary and MacKenzie Weegar each had three assists to lead the host Calgary Flames to a 6-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.

It was the 23rd multi-goal game of Backlund's career. Joel Farabee scored a short-handed goal, and Adam Klapka, Ryan Lomberg and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored goals. Devin Cooley made 34 saves for Calgary, which improved to 7-1-1 in its last nine home games.

Weegar notched his first three-point game of the season and Zary had the first three-point game of his career.

Mark Stone had a goal and an assist, Mitch Marner had two assists and Reilly Smith and Kaedan Korczak also scored goals for Vegas, which had an eight-game point streak snapped. Akira Schmid stopped 20 of 25 shots.

Backlund gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at the 3:54 mark of the first period when he chipped in a rebound of a Blake Coleman shot at the end of an odd-man rush. Klapka made it 2-0 midway through the period with a deflection of Yan Kuznetsov's point shot.

Vegas cut the lead to 2-1 on a breakaway goal by Smith, who took a stretch pass from Stone and put in a backhand shot on Cooley's glove side. Lomberg put Calgary back up by two goals near the end of the period when he finished a 2-on-0 break with a wrist shot past Schmid's blocker side.

The Flames extended the lead to 5-1 in the second period on goals by Backlund, who drove in a rebound of his own five-hole shot, and Farabee's short-handed goal, a wrist shot from the slot past Schmid's glove side.

Vegas, which won the first two meetings between the two teams early October by a combined score of 10-3, cut the lead to 5-2 near the end of the second period on Korczak's snap shot from the right circle into the far left corner.

Stone made it 5-3 with 3:57 remaining with a power-play goal, batting in a rebound of a Noah Hanifin shot.

Vegas pulled Schmid for an extra attacker with two minutes to go, and Huberdeau sealed the win with an empty-netter with 45 seconds remaining.

--Field Level Media