The Calgary Flames beat the Vegas Golden Knights by a 7-2 score on Monday night. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.

It’s no secret that the Flames played in a lot of tight games this season. They’ve chased a lot in games, and entered Monday night’s game having chased more often than every NHL club aside from the Los Angeles Kings. So it was different for them to have a 5-0 lead after the first period.

“It’s a maturity test, for sure,” reflected Flames head coach Bill Peters. “You want to have good habits. And how we came out in the second period and got off to a good start. Obviously the Tkachuk goal was first shift and we had a power play and we capitalized on that. The guys did a good job through 40 staying with it for sure. Then it gets a little tougher as you go, but that’s just human nature.”

Traditionally, the third period in a Flames game has seen them run a short bench while trying to generate enough offense to tie the game (or take the lead). Usually Peters runs three lines and parks his fourth forward line.

He ran things a bit differently in the third on Monday night, as many of his big guns were parked for much of the period.

Not having to lean on the team’s big guns could be helpful later in the week – though Peters joked that Johnny Gaudreau might be mad at him due to the lack of third period ice time.

“I think that’s huge,” said Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk of the team being able to spread the ice time around late. “That sets us up to most likely be really well rested for Wednesday. I think that when you can get everybody playing and get everybody playing the right way, it’s not too taxing on the body.”