CALGARY, Alberta – Calgary rookie Johnny Gaudreau continued his torrid scoring Saturday night with two goals to lead the Flames to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
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. Coming off a natural hat trick in Tuesday's comeback victory over Los Angeles, the 21-year-old has six goals in his last three games and eight in his last 10. Gaudreau is second in rookie scoring with 29 points, five behind the leader, Nashville's Filip Forsberg.
Joe Colborne and Curtis Glencross also scored for Calgary (19-15-3), which has won consecutive games after ending an eight-game winless skid.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the lone goal for Edmonton (7-22-7), which is winless in their last nine (0-7-2).
The Oilers have won just once in their last 21 games (1-14-6), a stretch that dates back to Nov. 11. Since taking over coaching duties when Dallas Eakins was fired, Todd Nelson is 0-3-2.
Calgary jumped out with three goals in less than a 2-minute stretch.
On the opening goal at 7:08, Paul Byron darted into the Oilers end and from the sideboards had his centering pass come sharply off the skate of Oilers rookie Leon Draisaitl and go on goal.
Goaltender Viktor Fasth sprawled to get his pad on it but he did not know where the puck went and while he was looking the wrong direction for the rebound, Colborne gathered it at the side of the net and put it in.
The goal ended a couple individual scoring droughts. It was the first goal in 27 games for Colborne, dating back to last season. Byron's assist ended a stretch of 15 games without a point.
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 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. From behind his own net, Brodie threaded a pass to Gaudreau at the Oilers blue-line and in alone on Fasth once again, Gaudreau had the puck bobble off his stick but still trickle in.
That goal ended the night for Fasth, who was promptly replaced by Ben Scrivens.
Scrivens made 20 saves in relief, keeping Edmonton in the game until Glencross scored on Matt Stajan's pretty set-up at 10:17 of the third to restore the Flames three-goal lead at 4-1.
Notes: The Flames record for two fastest goals by the same player is held by Lanny McDonald, who scored six seconds apart on March 22, 1984. ... The Flames scored three first-period goals for the first time since March 12, 2014. ... With rookies Gaudreau and Josh Jooris both having hat-tricks in December, it's the first time since Boston's Steve Heinze and Joe Juneau in January 1993 that two rookie teammates have recorded a hat-trick in the same month.
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