Blake Coleman scored 4 goals in the first period:
“We were able to get off to some good starts. We knew it was just a matter of time — at some point we would start to take the lead. It’s hard to get out in front on a road trip here. I was able to do that and keep the lead. It’s much easier to win on the road if you can get up early.”
As for the rest of the match:
“I thought we were the better team for the most part. Early in the third they got such a fluffy bounce that took away the air a little bit. But that Other than that, I thought we were in pretty good control. We made saves when we needed to. We had some great goals early on that gave us momentum. But the energy and I thought the jump was pretty obvious from the puck drop.”
Regarding the contributions of six different goal scorers:
“Flames hockey. That’s our recipe. If everyone works hard, we’re going to be a really tough team to beat. You can see it tonight. Every line, every D pair was contributing.” Goalie depth. Tonight we showed who we are. It’s hard to show that every game, but we need to figure out how to do that thoroughly if we want to work even harder and get back in the playoff race. I have to find it.”
Above .500:
“It’s good to be able to overcome difficulties. We have to stay there. We have two good road tests to finish and a couple of days of games here. If we win those two games , I can go home feeling pretty good.”
About Conor Zary’s amazing efforts on the road:
“I think we worked pretty hard and we were able to control the game and obviously take the lead and play with the lead. Having experienced it, I think it’s great to play with a lead and maintain a lead, which is always good.”
On scoring important goals and recent conversations with the coaching staff:
“I felt good tonight. Maybe the last two games I was a little off. I didn’t really feel like I played my game and I don’t think I played my best few games. Yesterday It was a good reset for me and I came over to chat with Husk a little bit and got back into my game and was able to be a little more direct with my game and speed up my pace and that’s what tonight was about. I think it helped.”
Here’s what head coach Ryan Husker had to say about his meeting with Zary.
“It was just a little bit of a reminder of what makes him a good hockey player and what we should be looking at consistently. Part of our conversation was about how difficult the league is. It was like, “Every game he plays, he’s going to notice a jump in the play of a lot of the older players. They’re going to start raising the level now, and he’s going to see how to raise the level.” We’re going to have to find that line. Early in this game, I thought that line was still an effective line for us.”
On Dennis Gilbert’s late departure after a horrific crash:
“I haven’t talked to (head sports physical therapist) Kent (Kobelka) yet. He’s moving well right now, so I think he’ll be fine. He’s just going to have to go through the protocols, that’s all. Now that’s what I’m guessing.”
Above the .500 mark:
“We’ve been in this situation a few times and had to manage and then we lose the next game and have to find ourselves in trouble again. “We have to string together points and get some traction. We want to do that, so that’s going to be important. The next game after that will be the most important game of the year for us.”