CALGARY, Alberta - Mikael Backlund had his first NHL hat trick to help the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks 7-3 on Thursday night.
Backlund scored on a power play, at even strength and short-handed. The 27-year-old Swede has a career-high 21 goals after scoring only five goals through his first 50 games.
Dougie Hamilton, Joe Colborne, Deryk Engelland and Sam Bennett also scored for Calgary.
Nikita Tryamkin scored his first NHL goal, and Bo Horvat and Emerson Etem also scored for Vancouver.
Backlund's third goal came with 52 seconds remaining in the second period on a nice play by Matt Stajan. On a 2-on-1, Stajan sent a perfect saucer pass over the stick of Ben Hutton that landed on the stick of Backlund, who fired a high shot over Ryan Miller to make it 5-3.
As he stood with his arms thrust in the air in jubilation, hats came raining down from the Scotiabank Saddledome crowd.
Backlund gave the Flames a 3-2 lead 1:18 into the second, also off Stajan's pass. After mishandling the pass, Backlund, from below the goal line, banked the puck in off of Miller.
Etem's goal at 6:54 tied it at 3, but Colborne gave the Flames the lead for good at 11:54. Also enjoying a career-best season, Colborne's scored his 19th when he deflected in Hamilton's point shot.
Backlund opened the scoring at 2:47, converting a nice pass from Jakub Nakladal.
The Canucks tied it at 6:23 when Tryamkin's shot from the blue line deflected off Hunter Shinkaruk and slipped through the pads of Joni Ortio.
Horvat briefly gave Vancouver its only lead at 17:36 before Hamilton tied it 32 seconds later.
The Flames had the edge in shots 43-27.
Miller gave up seven goals for just the fourth time in his career and the first time since Feb. 13, 2011.
Notes: Drew Shore was recalled from Stockton of the AHL and made his Flames season debut. ... Niklas Backstrom will start against his former team in Calgary's final game Saturday in Minnesota.
