It was a bittersweet night for rookie center Mark Jankowski.
Jankowski scored four times Taven Bryan Jersey , and the Calgary Flames finished off a disappointing season with a 7-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.
”Not the way we wanted it to end, we want to keep on playing, but definitely a building year,” said the 23-year-old Jankowski, who had just three points in his previous 18 games. ”I just take everything I learned this year from all the vets and use that as fuel in the summer to come back into camp and even better player.”
Calgary entered the night in an offensive funk, having mustered only nine goals over the previous nine games, eight of them losses. The seven goals was the club’s biggest offensive outburst since a 7-4 victory over St. Louis on Nov. 13.
”It’s one of those things. Tonight, for some reason, everything bounced in and I think we could have had even more,” Flames captain Mark Giordano said. ”It’s nice to end it on that note, but it’s been a tough year and obviously a disappointing year.”
Before the game, players from both teams and the officials formed a circle at center ice for a moment of silence for the 15 people who lost their lives in the Humboldt Broncos bus accident.
”You have those guys, that community Robert Woods Jersey , the team, on your mind all day,” Giordano said. ”We’re one big community, the hockey community, there’s a lot of people feeling this one.”
Afterward, the Saddledome crowd broke into a chant of ”Broncos! Broncos!”
”We talked a lot to our guys about the emotion and the purity of the game,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. ”Just think about the young men on that bus, who would love to be in the seats that we are. That was their goal and we wanted to play as well as we can to honor that.”
Spencer Foo, Garnet Hathaway and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for the Flames (37-35-10), who missed the playoffs for the seventh time in the past nine seasons. A big factor was Calgary’s 17-20-4 home record, its worst mark since 2000-01.
Cody Eakin scored for Vegas (51-24-7), which finished first in the Pacific Division and will open the playoffs on home ice against Los Angeles. Vegas is the first modern-era expansion team in any of the four North America pro spots to win its division in its first season.
”Right from the start it’s been a fun season,” goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. ”It’s fun to be a part of this team and this organization through it all. I’m really proud of the way this team has done throughout the season. Playoffs are fun Malik Hooker Jersey , intense, exciting. I’m looking forward to getting it going.”
Golden Knights veteran James Neal was impressed at how quickly the team gelled after being thrown together at the expansion draft.
”What impressed me most about our group is the consistency we played with, the way we rolled four lines, we counted on each player and needed each guy every night and every guy brought their game,” he said.
Down 3-0 after the first period, Vegas scored 51 seconds into the second. But the Flames responded with three more unanswered goals before the period ended.
Jankowski secured his first NHL hat trick with a short-handed goal at 18:06, bringing over 100 hats raining down onto the ice.
He completed the scoring at 1:32 of the third. It was Calgary’s first power-play goal in 14 games, snapping a 0-for-35 skid.
Jon Gillies had 26 stops for Calgary. Fleury gave up six goals on 18 shots before being replaced to start the third period. Malcolm Subban had 12 stops in relief.
NOTES: Both teams wore Humboldt Broncos decals on their helmet. The Flames also announced they were donating their $84,055 half of the 50/50 prize pot to those affected by Friday’s tragedy.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Face Los Angeles in the first round of the playoffs.
Flames: Offseason.
WASHINGTON — The Boston Red Sox will look to get a jump on the day and complete a sweep of the Washington Nationals Wednesday morning at Nationals Park.
The Nationals, hosting their traditional 11:05 a.m. July Fourth game, will try to avoid dropping their fifth straight game and falling below .500.
Boston (58-29) won for the seventh time in its last nine games Tuesday night, getting three-run homers from Eduardo Nunez and Xander Bogaerts, and a two-run shot from J.D. Martinez in an 11-4 rout.
The Red Sox took an early 3-0 lead on the Nunez homer in the second inning Quenton Nelson Jersey , pulled away with a six-run fifth and saw Martinez cap the offensive explosion in the ninth. Martinez drove in four runs, increasing his major league-leading RBI total to 71.
“Just a good day,” Martinez told mlb.com. “We came out, we kept the bases occupied, pretty much gave ourselves a chance where we kept passing the baton and getting the next guy up. Had a big hit from Bogey there early in the game, and everyone pretty much kept feeding off that.”
Washington (42-42) matched Boston’s hit total (12) but couldn’t string them together or produce them at crucial moments. The Nationals remained seven games behind Atlanta in the NL East.
Washington’s Tanner Roark (3-10) saw his June struggles bleed into July as he allowed nine runs on 10 hits in seven innings while preserving a tired bullpen. After the Nationals closed to within 3-2 in the fourth, Roark was tagged in the fifth.
“If these guys would give our lineup a chance, we’ll start winning some games because we are playing better,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told mlb.com regarding the big inning. “I see that. We came back and scored two runs, and the energy was great. We go back out there, and they come back and score six runs, and everything just goes dormant again.
“They didn’t quit, but here we go Ezekiel Elliott Jersey , scratching and clawing again, trying to get back in the game, and it’s tough. It’s tough for the boys.”
Washington’s hopes for salvaging the finale rest with right-hander Erick Fedde (1-3, 6.00 ERA), who is replacing injured Stephen Strasburg in the rotation. Fedde picked up a win in his previous start despite allowing five runs and eight hits in five innings of a 17-7 win over the Phillies on Friday.
“My stuff wasn’t great today,” he told MASN.com. “But days like those it’s really nice when your team puts up 17 runs. I’ll take that. Hopefully next time when the games are close, I can be the one to keep it close.”
Wednesday will be Fedde’s first career appearance against Boston.
Boston left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (9-3, 4.11) will try to snap a two-start slump Wednesday morning. Last time out he gave up five runs on seven hits — including two home runs — in six innings of an 8-1 loss to the Yankees on Friday. It was his second straight loss after winning six straight starts.
“I missed a couple pitches down the plate and they made an adjustment,” Rodriguez told the Boston Herald. “No matter who you face, if you miss on the plate that’s what happens.”
Rodriguez has never faced the Nationals.
The Nationals may get some offensive help Wednesday with the possible return of first baseman Matt Adams (fractured finger), who went 0-for-3 in a rehab game Tuesday night for Double-A Harrisburg.
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