THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — Going to the tough areas of the ice has Philadelphia Flyers left-winger Scott Hartnell well on his way to a career season.
Hartnell scored his 29th and 30th goals — both on third period deflections, and Matt Read scored the shootout winner Saturday night as the Flyers overcame a 3-0 second period deficit to beat the Calgary Flames 5-4.
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Hartnell reaches the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career, having finished with 30 goals in the 2008-09 season.
"Hartsy’s having a breakout year and it’s a credit to him playing with some great players in (Claude) Giroux and (Jaromir) Jagr, but going to the net, he makes room for himself and he gets those tough goals," says Flyers defenceman Braydon Coburn.
"This time of year, you’ve got to score goals from in front of the net, you’ve got to have screens because all these goalies are so good. You’ve got to have guys that are willing to get to the front and it’s not easy."
Read, who was Philadelphia’s fifth shooter, broke a 1-1 deadlock in the shootout beating Miikka Kiprusoff on a quick shot inside the goal post.
"I was just trying to see where he was and look for an open spot," said Read, who has gone 11 games without a goal in regulation. "I was thinking shoot the whole way and his glove wasn’t all the way up and I just shot it and hoped and it went in."
The Flyers comeback began after a short-handed goal by Tom Kostopoulos put Calgary ahead 3-0 at 12:55 of the second.
Over a furious final seven minutes of the second, the Flyers outshot the Flames 12-2 and scored twice to climbing within a goal headed to the second intermission.
At 15:47, Jakub Voracek wristed a 15-footer past Kiprusoff as he cut to the net off the wing. With 34 seconds left in the period, Coburn scored a rare goal, his third of the year bouncing in off the leg of Flames defenceman Scott Hannan.
Philadelphia tied it 3-3 on Hartnell’s deflection at 7:35 of the third period. The goal came on a two-man advantage after Matt Stajan was sent off for boarding 27 seconds into a too-many men on the ice penalty.
Calgary went back in front 4-3 at 10:49 on a penalty-shot goal by Alex Tanguay, but Hartnell responded again. Set up in front of the net again, just like his previous goal, this time he got a piece of a shot from Nicklas Grossman.
The win vaults Philadelphia (34-20-7) over New Jersey into fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
"It’s a good character builder for this team," said Read. "We’ve got a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. We just want to keep it going. We had a lot of opportunities, a lot of shots tonight, if we just have that belief."
Mark Giordano and Stajan scored the other goals for Calgary (28-23-11), who has lost five times in its last 10 games in extra time — twice in overtime, three times in a shootout.
"It’s no secret, we’re having a tough time right now playing with the lead," said Flames captain Jarome Iginla. "The good part is we’re getting it and we’re having real, solid first periods. But it slowly slips away from us."
By only earning a single point, the Flames fall to 11th place in the Western Conference, one point back of Dallas, Los Angeles and Colorado, who are tied for eighth place.
"We keep finding ways to shoot ourselves in the foot. Tonight, we gave them a five-on-three. We’re lucky to get a point tonight," said Tanguay.
.Calgary opened the scoring on an unassisted power-play goal by Giordano at 3:45 of the first period.
Giordano reached high over his head to glove down a clearing attempt by Voracek at the blue-line. The Flames defenceman set the puck down and, with it still wobbling, stepped into a slapshot that beat Ilya Bryzgalov high on the glove side.
Calgary went ahead 2-0 at 5:17 when Stajan cut across the slot and beat Bryzgalov with a harmless looking shot.
Two goals on two shots against Bryzgalov prompted coach Peter Laviolette to call a time-out, and got the Scotiabank Saddledome sell-out crowd of 19,289 into the game.
Every save for Bryzgalov brought about the jeers from the crowd for the rest of the first. He finished the game with 17 saves.
"I thought the guys played hard for 60 minutes," said Laviolette. "The start wasn’t slow, we just got a couple of tough bounces. As the game went on, Bryz got better and stronger and made some saves for us and in the shootout, he kept us in there, gave us an opportunity."
Notes: Calgary has been outshot in 10 consecutive games. The Flames have been outshot by 104 shots during that span. … Philadelphia has outshot the opposition in nine straight games. … Calgary’s last short-handed goal was Feb. 20 last season, scored by Anton Babchuk during the Flames 4-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens in the Heritage Classic. … The last time Stajan scored in consecutive games was Jan. 8 and 9, 2010, when he did it as a Toronto Maple Leaf. … RW Guillaume Desbiens made his Flames debut, after being recalled Friday from Abbotsford (AHL). Desbiens previously appeared in 13 games with the Vancouver Canucks.