Flames extend win streak to 6 with victory over Islanders

Rookie Flames centre Adam Ruzicka had a goal and an assist and was a plus-3 as Calgary made it six wins in a row on Saturday with a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders.

Calgary climbs to within one point of Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division. The Flames hold three games in hand on the Golden Knights.

Noah Dobson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for New York (17-19-6), which earns two of six points on its Western Canada road trip. The Islanders wrap up a stretch of four road games in a row in Buffalo on Tuesday.

In his 12th consecutive start in net for Calgary, Jacob Markstrom had 19 saves to improve to 20-10-5.

Ilya Sorokin made 24 stops in getting the surprise start for the Islanders. His record falls to 14-10-5.

Semyon Varlamov was supposed to start after Sorokin took the loss in Edmonton on Friday, and it was Varlamov who led the team onto the ice for warm-up. But right after, he was placed into the NHL's COVID protocol, pressing Sorokin into duty.

The Islanders tied it up at 17:07 on a power play when Dobson's point shot deflected off Blake Coleman's stick and eluded Markstrom.

But the Flames regained the lead 61 seconds later on a set-up from Johnny Gaudreau, who crossed the Islanders blue line, curled back to buy himself some time and space and fed Tanev coming late in the slot, who ripped a 40-foot wrist shot inside the goal post.

Gaudreau finished with a pair of assists to extend his point streak to six games (3-4-7).

Calgary briefly built up a two-goal lead late in the second period when Ruzicka neatly set up Mangiapane's redirection in front at 15:32.

The Flames got some insurance eight minutes into the third when Gudbranson scored his second of the season on a set-up from Milan Lucic. Calgary put