Jakob Pelletier scores his first career NHL goal in Flames rout of ...

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Jakob Pelletier’s excitement is infectious. 

So when he scored the first goal of his NHL career on Saturday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres (26-21-4), it wasn’t just that you could see how much it meant to him. 

You could see what it meant to his Calgary Flames (25-18-10) teammates, too.Head coach Darryl Sutter even walked over to him on the bench and gave the 21-year-old a pat on the back. 

It was a special moment for a young player with a tonne of upside and a big moment for the Flames, too, as the second period marker was Step 1 in erasing a two-goal deficit and then carrying on to wallop the Sabres by a 7-2 scoreline. 

“It’s great. The past three or four games, I think I had some good chances and I couldn’t score, so tonight feels pretty good, yeah,” Pelletier told FlamesTV after the game. “I scored and I kind of blacked out, I was like ‘phew’. “The goal itself came after a nice bit of work from both Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, who found Pelletier streaking into open-ice. It was a pretty one, for sure, and was especially special for the young man because he had family who had driven to Buffalo to watch him play. 

If there was any lingering lack-of-confidence from a first-period that saw the Sabres jump ahead 2-0, it was gone by the time Pelletier got to the bench. 

“He starts before the goal-line and ends up at their goal-line,” Sutter told FlamesTV in Buffalo when he was asked about the goal. “I said it all along about that kid, I said it at training camp and I’ve said it over and over again, he’s got the energy and he’s got the spirit for the game. He’ll be a good player. 

“He’s such a likeable kid, guys feed off it, same as (Dennis Gilbert). It’s good to see those guys score. It’s a long season, it’s good to see different things happen.” 

Pelletier’s goal really did seem to be a catalyst for the Flames. What came after can only be described as an offensive explosion. 

Twenty seconds later, Mikael Backlund tied things up. Less than ninety seconds after that, Gilbert scored his first goal with the Flames to give them the lead. 

That’s a nice story in-and-of-itself. Gilbert’s from the Buffalo-area and was playing in his hometown for the first time as an NHLer. He had lots of family there, too. 

“I just tried to hit it hard and I’ll tell my kids one day that it went bar-down,” Gilbert said. “I was kind of laughing that it went in, it wasn’t a very good shot, that’s not really my calling card. But it’s cool, I had, like 100 people here so I obviously wanted to play well.” 

From there, the goals just seemed like they wouldn’t stop coming for the Flames, with Kadri, Dillon Dube and Tyler Toffoli – twice – all scoring as the Flames turned Saturday’s game into a rout. 

It’s been a long time since it’s looked this good for the Flames. They played pretty well against the New York Rangers earlier this week but wound up with an overtime loss. The defeat to the Red Wings was ugly, plain and simple. 

But on Saturday, they moved past their tough first period and completely and totally dominated the Sabres, out-shooting their hosts 40-23 and cruising to a comfortable win. 

Saturday’s win got them back into the Western Conference’s Wild Card spot, at least temporarily. 

Flames fans would surely like to see more of the same on Monday against the Senators in Ottawa. And it’s a whole lot of fun when they’re firing the way they were Saturday.  

QUICK HITSIt didn’t start great, with Jacob Markstrom allowing two goals on the Sabres’ first three shots, but he was solid throughout Saturday afternoon’s game and wound up picking up his first win since Jan. 6, when the Flames beat the New York Islanders … Dube had four points on Saturday, by the way. A goal and three assists … Kadri became the first Flames player to score 20 goals this season when he tipped-in his second period marker. It didn’t take long for Toffoli to catch him and surpass his season-mark, though, as the Flames winger scored his 20th and 21st of the season in the third period … My colleague Wes Gilbertson wrote a week or two ago about how Mikael Backlund always seems to pick up his production in the second half of the season. Well, Backlund now has 11 points in his last 11 games after scoring in the second period on Saturday … Milan Lucic was coming across the blue-line mid-way through the third period. Instead of making any sort of move, he opted to simply run right through Sabres defenceman Jacob Bryson. There’s nothing to really add here, it was just a reminder of what happens when Lucic throws his body around a bit. 

daustin@postmedia.com 

www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9 

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