Mikael Backlund leads Flames past struggling Habs

Mikael Backlund scored twice in a three-point outing and MacKenzie Weegar collected three assists as the host Calgary Flames claimed a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Nazem Kadri netted one goal and one assist while Martin Pospisil and Daniil Miromanov added goals and Jonathan Huberdeau earned two assists for Calgary. Rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf made 36 saves to win a second consecutive game.

Cole Caufield and David Savard scored for the Canadiens, who have only three wins in their last 14 games. Goalie Cayden Primeau stopped 23 shots for Montreal to open a five-game road trip.

The Flames pulled themselves six points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the Western Conference's second wild-card spot with the strong effort.

Backlund's power-play goal opened the scoring at 16:23 of the first period. Weegar fired a shot from the point that the Calgary captain deflected for his first of the night.

Backlund potted his second of the game, 15th of the season and 200th of his career 11 seconds into the second period to double the lead. A rush off the faceoff ended with Backlund burying the puck into a wide-open net to become the 11th player in franchise history to score 200 goals for the Flames and the second Swedish-born player, joining Kent Nilsson.

Pospisil's tap-in tally setup by Huberdeau made it a 3-0 game with his seventh of the campaign at 7:41 of the middle period

Caufield put the visitors on the board just past the game's midway point by converting a one-timer of the feed on an odd-man rush to snap a 12-game goalless drought. Then Savard blasted a point shot for his sixth of the season to make it a one-goal game with 95 seconds remaining in the period.

However, Kadri restored Calgary's two-goal edge 61 seconds into the third period when he redirected a pass to the front of the net for another power-play tally and his 23rd goal of the season.

Miromanov, deep in the zone from his point position, pounced on a loose puck for his second of the season at 3:54 of the final frame to round out the scoring.