After a quiet trade deadline, the Calgary Flames returned to action for a clash with the New York Islanders. The Flames continued a stretch of strong two-way play and beat the Islanders by a 3-1 score in their return to Nassau Coliseum.

Neither team scored in the opening period, though the Flames did a nice job generating shots, chances and momentum. They out-shot the Islanders 9-6 and out-chanced them 11-6.

The Flames opened the scoring early in the second period on the power play. After Mark Jankowski drew a penalty, Matthew Tkachuk scored a heck of a goal. After accepting a pass from Elias Lindholm, Tkachuk backed his backside up and then scored a between-the-legs goal to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Islanders tied things up a little while later off a rare Mark Giordano defensive gaffe. Giordano pinched but nobody cycled back to cover his side of the point. Andrew Ladd created a turnover, which led to a two-on-one rush and Josh Bailey beat Mike Smith low stick-side to make it a 1-1 game.

Shots were 12-10 Islanders and chances 9-8 Islanders.

But the Flames grabbed hold of the game again in the early third period. After a couple good shifts in the Islanders zone, Mikael Backlund crept in off the bench for a rush. He accepted a drop pass from Lindholm and beat Robin Lehner with a quick wrister from the face-off dot. His shot picked the top corner and gave the Flames a 2-1 lead.

After another lengthy shift in the Islanders zone, Austin Czarnik fed Rasmus Andersson and the young Swede unleashed a slapper from the top of the face-off circle to make it 3-1 Flames.

The Islanders had a few pushes in the third but couldn’t generate too much. The Flames held on for the victory. Shots were 10-8 Islanders and chances were 5-2 Flames.

The Flames played a smart defensive game when they beat the Islanders last week in Calgary. Aside from a chunk of the second period where they eased off a bit, they basically copied that gameplan. They were a little bit better than the Islanders in every game situation, particularly shutting down the home side’s power play while scoring one of their own.

This was very much a team win, but let’s give it to Tkachuk for an absolutely filthy goal.

The Flames scored two goals in 1:57 to open the third period, punctuated by a couple very nice bottom-six shifts and a slap shot goal from Andersson. The Islanders couldn’t must up much after that.

The Flames are now 11-0-4 when entering the third period tied and a combined 33-1-4 when entering the third period leading or tied.

For those of you that want to feel old, Cory Stillman’s son (Riley) made his NHL debut tonight with the Florida Panthers.

The Flames (40-16-7) head to “scenic” Newark tomorrow. They play the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night.