Flames halt losing streak with win over Chicago

Sean Monahan scored the winner 59 seconds into overtime Saturday night as the Calgary Flames snapped a six-game winless skid with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

On an odd-man rush, TJ Brodie dropped the pass into the slot for Monahan, who made no mistake burying his team-leading 24th of the season past Jeff Glass on the blocker side.

Matt Stajan, Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Frolik also scored for Calgary (26-18-8).

The two sides meet again on Tuesday in Chicago as the Flames open a six-game road trip.

Nick Schmaltz, Vinnie Hinostroza and Anthony Duclair scored for Chicago (24-20-8).

Blackhawks wrapped up their four-game road trip with a 2-1-1 mark.

Down 3-2, Calgary tied it at 9:50 of third period when Frolik fired a wrist shot past Glass after a pretty set-up by Mikael Backlund.

It was the first goal since Dec. 20 for the veteran Czech, who returned two games ago from a broken jaw that had sidelined him for 12 games.

Chicago broke a 2-2 tie at 14:13 of the second on Duclair’s second goal since joining the Blackhawks in a trade with Arizona. Brodie bobbled the puck at the offensive blue line enabling Duclair to race away on a breakaway, beating Mike Smith on the blocker side.

Trailing 2-0, Calgary got back to even on second-period goals from Stajan and Gaudreau.

Getting the Flames on the scoreboard at 5:56 was the suddenly-hot Stajan.

Sprung on a breakaway by an alert pass from Travis Hamonic, the veteran put a shot inside the post on Glass for his second goal in as many games and third in the last eight games.

Stajan had just one assist in the season’s first 34 games.

Just over five minutes later, Calgary pulled even when Gaudreau one-timed Micheal Ferland’s pass behind Glass for his 16th goal.

Blackhawks took a 2-0 lead 1:53 into the second period on a power-play goal by Hinostroza.

Set up neatly on a pass through the slot by Patrick Kane, it was the second such set-up for the talented Chicago right winger who now has 499 career assists.

It was Kane with the set-up on the first goal of the game too.

At 7:40 of the first period, Schmaltz found open ice near the face-off dot and Kane found him, putting a pass on his tape for a one-timer that Smith couldn’t handle.

The busier of the two goaltenders was Glass, who had 35 stops.

Three times he robbed Monahan including twice on the same shift in the first period.

He falls to 3-3-3.

At the other end, Smith had 25 saves to improve to 21-15-6.

Calgary rookie Mark Jankowski, pointless in his last eight games, was a healthy scratch.

Inserted for him was rookie Andrew Mangiapane, who sat out the previous five games… Flames also inserted D Matt Bartkowski, who had only played three of the previous 36 games.