CALGARY – When Johnny Gaudreau scores a goal on home ice, the Calgary Flames play Chuck Berry’s song Johnny B. Goode.
That song was heard twice Saturday night as the exciting Calgary rookie continued his strong play in recent weeks in which “good” would be an understatement.
Making it six goals in the last three games, Gaudreau scored his 11th and 12th goals to lead the Flames to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, extending the Oilers latest winless streak to nine games.
“I’m pretty excited about getting the chance to score some goals,” said Gaudreau, who won the Hobey Baker Award last year with Boston College. “They weren’t coming throughout the first 20, 30 games of the season. I was kind of off to a slow start but it’s nice to see the puck going in the net.”
Saturday’s two goals comes on the heels of Gaudreau’s hat trick in Tuesday’s 4-3 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
“I think that might have been the quickest I’ve ever scored two goals,” said Gaudreau, who is second in rookie scoring with 29 points, five behind the leader, Nashville’s Filip Forsberg.
“Our line is playing really well and the team is playing pretty well right now, too, so we have to keep it up.”
According to Elias, Gaudreau is the first Flames rookie since Joe Nieuwendyk in March 1988 to record consecutive multi-goal games.
“He’s so quick. He’s pouncing on those loose pucks with lots of speed. He’s capable of scoring any way,” said Flames coach Bob Hartley. “His chemistry with Jiri Hudler is phenomenal. Whether we play them with (Markus) Granlund or (Josh) Jooris, it seems they always find a way to get on the scoreboard for us, and that’s so important.”
Gaudreau’s goals came 16 seconds apart early in the first period as the Flames blew the game open with three goals in less than two minutes.
Up 1-0 on Joe Colborne’s first of the year at 7:08, Gaudreau made it 2-0 at 8:32 capitalizing on an Oilers turnover.
When Mark Arcobello’s pass through his own slot was mishandled by David Perron, Gaudreau pounced on the loose puck and quickly broke in alone on Edmonton goalie Viktor Fasth, beating him with a nifty move to his backhand.
Gaudreau’s second goal of the night, also on a breakaway, came on a perfect feed from TJ Brodie, who wired him a pass from behind the Flames net that hit on the tape at the Oilers blue-line.
“(Brodie) sees the ice so well. When you see him back there behind the net it’s hard not to go flying up the ice because he definitely sees you,” Gaudreau said.
In alone on Fasth yet again, this time Gaudreau had the puck bobble off his stick but still trickle through the pads of Fasth.
“I’ve got to stop at least one of those to keep us in the game but I didn’t,” said Fasth, who was immediately pulled after that goal by coach Todd Nelson and replaced with Ben Scrivens.
Curtis Glencross also scored for Calgary (19-15-3), which has won consecutive games after ending an eight-game winless skid. The Flames are ninth in the Western Conference, two points back of Los Angeles for the second wild-card spot.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had the lone goal for the Oilers (7-22-7), who are winless in their last nine (0-7-2).
“In this league, it’s so hard to come back from even just one or two goals so to spot them three is unfortunate,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “Especially on the road, the home team is buzzing, the crowd is going, it made it really tough for us to come back even though we tried pretty hard.”
Dating back to November 11, Edmonton has won just once in its last 21 games (1-14-6). Since taking over coaching duties when Dallas Eakins was fired, Nelson is 0-3-2.
“I thought our start wasn’t bad at all, and that stretch where we basically gave them three goals and didn’t make them earn it. They capitalized, which is a credit to them, but we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot like that,” Nelson said.
“The second period we started to get something going, start of the third I thought we came out strong, had some good offensive zone possession, we were creating some things. Then we took a couple penalties and it killed everything we were building upon.”
On the opening goal, Paul Byron’s centring pass caromed off a skate and on goal. Fasth sprawled to get his pad on it but Colborne tucked in the rebound.
“To finally see it go across the line. I’ve had more than enough chances and seen goalies stop it or see it just sitting on the line. To see that one slide past was real nice,” said Colborne, who scored for the first time in 27 games.
Edmonton was the better team in the second period but couldn’t cut into the deficit until Nugent-Hopkins scored on a deflection 4:23 into the third period.
“They’re the Oilers and we hate them so anytime you can take two points from them, it’s nice,” said Colborne.
Fasth ended up with three saves to fall to 2-9-2. Scrivens stopped 20 of 21 in relief.
Jonas Hiller had 26 stops to improve to 11-10-2. It was the first time in 16 starts that he has surrendered fewer than two goals.
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