Flames beat Rangers to snap eight-game losing skid

Blake Coleman scored his team-leading fourth and fifth goals on Sunday as the Calgary Flames snapped an eight-game losing skid with a 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers.

Nazem Kadri, Kevin Bahl and Yegor Sharangovich also scored for the Flames (2-7-1), who scored more than three goals for the first time this season. Mikael Backlund chipped in with two assists.

Despite the victory, the Flames remain last in the NHL’s overall standings.

Noah Laba had the lone goal for New York (3-5-2).

Starting for the ninth time in 10 games, Dustin Wolf made 29 saves for the win, improving to 2-6-1. Igor Shesterkin, who had 25 stops, falls to 2-4-2.

In a showdown between the NHL’s two lowest scoring teams — Calgary, last at 1.67 goals per game entering the night — needed just 1:42 to open the scoring with Kadri ripping his second of the season into the top corner.

Kadri then helped set up Bahl at 9:21 as the Flames took an early 2-0 lead, although it was just 10 seconds later that Laba answered back, getting loose down the wing and notching his first NHL goal.

Rangers: New York entered the night as one of three teams yet to lose on the road in regulation (3-0-1), a stark contrast to their 0-4-1 mark at Madison Square Garden, but they played more like they were at home, unable to generate much offensively, while making some egregious defensive mistakes. On a third-period power play, they gave up a short-handed goal to Coleman on a 2-on-1.

Flames: Coach Ryan Huska made waves Sunday morning when he revealed that he was scratching 22-year-old Matt Coronato, one of the Flames’ most dangerous scorers. Coronato is in the first season of a new seven-year, US$45.5 million (C$63.6-million) deal signed in May. In another shuffle, he moved centre Morgan Frost to the wing with Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau, and that new-look trio combined on the first two goals.

Trailing 2-1 in the second, the Rangers got a glorious chance to tie it when a 3-on-2 led to Brennan Othmann having the puck all alone, 10 feet in front of Wolf. But rather than shoot, he tried to slide a pass to Laba at the side of the net that went astray. On the ensuing rush up ice, Connor Zary dipsey-doodled around Braden Schneider before sending a no-look backhand pass into the slot that was converted by Sharangovich for his first goal of the season.

The Flames were 28-7-7 last season in games in which they scored first, but this year they had been a stunning 0-5-0 in that scenario until ending that skid Sunday. Similarly, Calgary was 18-3-3 a year ago when leading after the first period, but had been 0-4-0 this season.

Rangers: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

Flames: Visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

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