Cammalleri, Flames take on Coyotes

(SportsNetwork.com) - Jiri Hudler and rookie Sean Monahan both helped carry Calgary's offense while Mike Cammalleri recovered from an upper-body injury sustained during the preseason.

With Cammalleri now back in the mix, the Flames figure to be even more dangerous in the offensive zone. They'll try to post a second straight win when they continue a five-game road trip Tuesday night in a meeting with the Phoenix Coyotes.

Cammalleri was tied for the team lead last season with 32 points in 44 games while finishing second on the club with 13 goals. He was hurt early on the preseason and missed Calgary's first seven games before making his season debut in last night's 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

The forward had a quick impact, scoring Calgary's first goal of the game 2:50 into the second period to make it a 1-1 contest, then assisted on Monahan's team-leading sixth goal of the campaign with 6:21 to go in the frame.

The Kings tied the contest before the end of the second and the clubs remained deadlocked until T.J. Brodie scored the Flames' third power-play goal of the game, with his winner coming with just 30 seconds to go in regulation.

"Real gutsy effort, and (we) scored three goals on the power play," Calgary coach Bob Hartley said. "We knew coming here it would be physical so there would be power plays on both sides. We won the special teams battle."

Karri Ramo stopped 27 shots to win his first game of the season for the Flames, who had lost the first two of their five-game road trip that ends on Thursday in Dallas.

Ramo was making his third start of the campaign and Hartley is slated to go with Joey MacDonald in net tonight. MacDonald is 2-1-0 with a 2.61 goals against average in three previous meetings with the Coyotes.

He'll hope that the offense can stay hot with the addition of Cammalleri to Monahan and Hudler.

Hudler had two assists in last night's win to extend his season-opening point streak, with the center logging four goals and 11 points over the eight games.

Monahan, the sixth overall pick of the 2013 draft, has notched a point in all but one of his eight games this season.

While Monahan has surprised by adjusting to the NHL so quickly, Phoenix goaltender Mike Smith had something in his own back of tricks as he scored a goal with 0.1 seconds left in Saturday's 5-2 victory over Detroit.

Smith gave up a pair of first-period goals before the Coyotes stormed back with five straight tallies.

"Obviously I'm thrilled with the way we played. It's just a bonus to be able to score a goal in this league as a goaltender. We did a lot of really good things tonight against a really good hockey team," said Smith.

Smith ended with 31 saves, the last with his glove before he jumped up and flung the puck all the way down the length of the ice and into the open net. He became the 11th different NHL goaltender to score a goal -- the first in Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes franchise history -- and the seventh to do so with his own shot.

"I do shoot the puck quite often in practice, but a lot of things have to go right in order for that to happen," said Smith. "I was able to score in the ECHL my first year of pro and it was the same thing. (The first goal) was a little different because it was a dumped puck, but everything has to work right and the clock has to slow down at the right time to let it trickle over the line. It was just a bonus to a great win."

Martin Hanzal and Antoine Vermette also scored, while Mike Ribeiro lit the lamp twice for the Coyotes, who were coming off a pair of post-regulation losses and are 4-0-2 in their last six.

Ribeiro, a big free agent signing this past offseason, was held without a point over his first three games this season, but has seven during a six-game point streak.

The Coyotes have lost four of five and seven of their last 11 against the Flames, though they have won six of the last seven in Phoenix.

Smith is 4-3-1 with a 2.56 GAA in eight career meetings with the Flames.