Calgary Flames Scotiabank Saddledome (5th) North (10 - 10)

Mikael Backlund collected one goal and two assists while his linemates Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk each netted one goal and one assist to lead the visiting Calgary Flames to a 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.

Goaltender David Rittich made 31 saves for the Flames, who also received a two-assist game from Johnny Gaudreau.

The Flames and Senators will meet two more times: on Monday in Ottawa and again three nights later in Calgary.

Looking to make amends for their dreadful performance in a 6-1 loss to the Senators on Thursday, the Flames had more oomph to their game from the drop of the puck and scored a pair of early goals 37 seconds apart to take a 2-0 edge.

Rookie defenseman Juuso Valimaki opened the scoring at exactly the four-minute mark when he received a backhanded saucer pass from Gaudreau and fired home a shot from the slot for his first of the season.

Backlund doubled the lead when he took a pass from Mangiapane and whipped a shot off the far post and into the net, and then Elias Lindholm made it a three-goal edge just after the midway point of the opening frame when he stole the puck from Tim Stutzle and wristed a shot from the left circle.

Drake Batherson scored in his fifth consecutive game -- one short of the franchise record -- with the first of his team's three power-play goals to put the Senators on the board at 3-1 before the period ended, but the Flames responded by doubling their lead in the second period.

Sean Monahan one-timed a pass from Gaudreau for a power-play goal at the 4:02 mark of the middle frame to extend Calgary's lead, and then Mangiapane made it a 5-1 affair before the game's midway point when he finished a flurry of action for his team's first short-handed goal of the season.

Colin White replied on that same Ottawa man-advantage by burying a perfect shot from the slot, but Tkachuk redirected Backlund's shot-pass into the top corner to make it a 6-2 count before the second intermission. The Flames had managed only eight goals in their previous six outings.

Brady Tkachuk collected Ottawa's third man-advantage marker to round out the scoring with 10 minutes remaining, but that was as close as the hosts could get.

Ottawa starting goalie Matt Murray was pulled after the second period, having faced 33 shots in the first 40 minutes, and was replaced by Joey Daccord, who stopped five shots in relief.

--Field Level Media