- Matvei Gridin had two goals and an assist in Calgary’s 5-2 win over Toronto
- Devin Cooley made 26 saves for his fourth straight win and sits at .955
- Read below for what the Flames said about their four-game winning streak
Matvei Gridin had the first three-point game of his NHL career, and the Flames beat the Maple Leafs 5-2 on Monday night.
The 20-year-old forward scored twice and added an assist in Calgary’s fourth straight win. He has three goals and two assists in his last two games. Watch the first one, a wrister over Sergei Bobrovsky’s blocker that opened the scoring:
Gridin was asked about the way the Flames are playing right now.
“It all starts with us playing the right way,” Gridin said. “And then because we play it the right way, we can afford to do some fun stuff with the puck.”
The fun stuff included a celebration after his second goal, a power-play marker 25 seconds into the second period. Check out the Griddy:
Gridin, the No. 28 pick in 2024, is the first Flames player with a three-point game at age 20 or younger since Matthew Tkachuk did it on Dec. 4, 2018. Mikael Backlund also scored in his return from an upper-body injury, Joel Farabee and Martin Pospisil added a goal and an assist each, and the Flames improved to 5-6-0 after a 4-0-0 homestand.
Goaltender Devin Cooley is a big reason the homestand went that way. He stopped 26 shots against Toronto and has won four consecutive starts with a .955 save percentage and a 1.50 goals against average. Our own graphic has the numbers:
Cooley made 34 saves in a 3-2 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes and 36 more in a 2-1 win over the Wild. After that Wild game, he took a shot at anyone already counting on Calgary to win the draft lottery.
“I already know the DMs I’m going to be getting from Team Tank are ‘just stop winning idiot’ but we’re going to keep doing our best and keep trying to win,” Cooley said.
Flames coach Ryan Huska liked what he saw from the skaters on Monday. “We’re playing a simpler brand of hockey and it’s resulting in more opportunities,” Huska said.
The Leafs had their own news. Kirill Marchenko left with a lower-body injury, and Auston Matthews hit 800 career points in the loss. Cooley also made headlines earlier this month when he brought his pet bunny to a game.
