GLENDALE, Ariz. — Calgary’s patient approach with Sam Bennett paid off Monday night.
Bennett scored twice, Sean Monahan had a goal and two assists and the Flames avoid a season sweep by the Arizona Coyotes with a 5-2 win.
Bennett stopped an 18-game drought with his first goal since he scored in a shootout win at San Jose on Feb. 11. The 19-year-old centre has 17 goals and 18 assists in 71 games.
“I had a talk a few days (ago) with him telling him that goals would come,” Calgary coach Bob Hartley said. “‘Let’s keep playing hard the right way,’ and tonight he was able to get two loose pucks and they were two great goals.”
T.J. Brodie and Joe Colborne also scored for Calgary, and Joni Ortio had 22 saves. Micheal Ferland had two assists and the Flames went 2 for 3 on the power play while stopping a three-game losing streak.
Calgary had lost all four previous meetings with Arizona this season.
“When you finally do get a bounce, it’s a great feeling and I think it just builds my confidence even more,” Bennett said. “No one likes going through funks like that. I don’t think I changed anything myself. I think it’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Anthony Duclair scored twice for the Coyotes, who had won three in a row. Louis Domingue stopped 16 shots.
Both of Duclair’s goals came on power plays in the second period, giving him 19 on the season. He is tied with Trevor Letowski in 1999-2000 for second on the single-season goal-scoring list for a Coyotes rookie.
Duclair’s second goal gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead. He collected a deflection off Martin Hanzal after Alex Tanguay sent a pass into the crease and put in the rebound.
“We made some good plays on the power play. You want to capitalize every time we’re not ahead,” Duclair said. “That’s what we did, but at the same time the game is played 5-on-5 and they did a better job.”
The Coyotes played without captain Shane Doan, who missed the game while undergoing concussion protocol. He is day to day.
Bennett scored Calgary’s first goal less than two minutes into the game. Ferland stole the puck from Arizona’s Nicklas Grossmann and centred to Bennett, who didn’t get a clean shot but got enough on the puck to put it past Domingue.
“It was a great play by (Ferland) to find me in the slot,” Bennett said. “It was a little bit of a lucky one, but I’ll take it.”
The Coyotes appeared to tie it at 1 on a power-play goal from Oliver Ekman-Larsson just a few seconds into the second period, but Hanzal was called for interference when he fell over Ortio on the shot.
After Duclair’s goal put Arizona in front, Bennett tied it with his second goal at 16:41 of the second. He shot the puck off Domingue’s pads and put in the rebound.
Monahan scored on a power play late in the second when Dougie Hamilton‘s shot was deflected out to him for a wrist shot that got by Domingue.
“Monny was a force once again,” Hartley said.
Calgary scored the only two goals of the third, a power-play goal for Brodie and an empty-net goal for Colborne, with Monahan assisting on both.
NOTES: Calgary F Michael Frolik left early in the third period with a lower-body injury. “We just pulled him out. We’re going to treat him (Tuesday),” Hartley said. “It’s not bad.” … Flames F Johnny Gaudreau was scratched with an upper-body injury, and D Jyrki Jokipakka was also held out with an injury. … F Hunter Shinkaruk, called up from Stockton of the AHL earlier Monday, made his Flames debut and recorded an assist. The 21-year old Calgary native joined forwards Derek Grant and Emile Poirier and defenceman Brett Kulak, all recalled from Stockton. … Calgary assigned F Freddie Hamilton and F Garnet Hathaway to Stockton. … Coyotes D Michael Stone missed his first game of the season and is likely out for the rest of the schedule with a lower body injury. … Hanzal tied his career high for points in a season with 40. … Arizona recalled D Alex Grant from AHL Springfield, but he was scratched Monday.
