The Boston Bruins are really good at hockey. But the Calgary Flames, when they want to be, can be pretty good, too. The Flames out-worked and out-hustled the Bruins in a hard-fought 5-2 road win to kick off the final stretch of the regular season.

The Flames scored first off a play that was eerily similar to a bounce that went against them on Friday against the Bruins. Mikael Backlund’s initial shot went wide, but rebounded off the end boards right to Matthew Tkachuk. He chipped the puck over a sprawling Tuukka Rask to make it 1-0 Flames.

Shots were 9-7 Bruins and scoring chances 8-7 Bruins in the opening period.

The Bruins tied things up on, of all things, a Flames power play. The Flames mishandled the puck at the offensive blueline, sending Brad Marchand in on a breakaway. He beat David Rittich to tie things up at 1-1.

But the Flames managed to answer back twice before the end of the period.

First, Johnny Gaudreau faked cutting to the net, then fed Sean Monahan for a one-timer in the slot that beat Rask to give the Flames a 2-1 edge.

After Dillon Dube drew a penalty, the Flames added another goal. This time, Monahan tipped a Matthew Tkachuk slap-pass past Rask to make it 3-1.

Shots were 13-2 Flames and scoring chances 11-8 Bruins in the second period.

The Bruins pressed to open the third period. They cut the Flames lead after Austin Wagner scored off a scramble in the crease – Rittich made the initial save, but couldn’t corral the loose puck – to make it a 3-2 game.

But that’s as close as Boston would get. Backlund scored off a nice individual effort to make it 4-2 late.

Backlund added an empty-netter later still to make it a 5-2 Flames win.

Shots were 11-7 Flames and scoring chances 8-3 Bruins in the third period.

This was a very similar game to the one the Flames played against Boston on Friday in Calgary. The big difference was the Flames seemed to manage the game better. They didn’t have as many dramatic swings in their game, and they made fewer costly errors.

Monahan scored twice and was noticeable, so he gets the nod.

But stick-taps to Rittich and the entire Backlund/Mangiapane/Tkachuk line.

Two Monahan goals in a 1:12 span in the second period gave the Flames a lead they never relinquished.

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.

Erik Gustafsson had an assist and led the Flames in ice time (21:00) in his Flames debut. Derek Forbort was pointless (but even) in 17:54.

The Flames are now 21-1-2 when leading after two periods.

The Flames have 72 points. A 95 point playoff pace through 64 games pro-rates to 74.1 points, so they’re 2.1 points off a likely playoff pace with 18 games to go.

The Flames (33-25-6) are off to Nashville. They play the Predators on Thursday night.