Giordano, Markstrom lead Flames to 4-1 win over Canadiens

MONTREAL (AP) — Mark Giordano had a goal and an assist, Jacob Markstrom stopped 26 shots and the Calgary Flames beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Wednesday night.

Noah Hanafin, Josh Leivo and Sean Monahan also scored, and Chris Tanev had two assists. The Flames have won three straight to pull four points behind the Canadiens for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division, though Montreal has three games in hand..

Brett Kulak scored for the Canadiens, who have lost four of their last five. Jake Allen had 30 saves.

The teams wrap up a two-game series at Montreal on Friday night, and meet four times over the next 12 days. Calgary has won four of five meetings so far this season.

Hanifin got Calgary on the scoreboard with his fourth of the season at 3:58 of the first period. Mikael Backlund won the offensive-zone faceoff and sent the puck back to the defenseman, who blasted a rising slap shot over Allen.

Giordano’s slap shot through traffic from the point 29 seconds into the second period made it 2-0.

Kulak pulled Montreal within one at 10:55 of the second. The defenseman earned his first goal in over two years converting Jonathan Drouin’s backhand feed and scoring off the rush.

Leivo restored Calgary’s two-goal lead at 12:49 of the third. He fought off Montreal captain Shea Weber and put a backhand upstairs on Allen.

Monahan’s empty-netter with 1:10 left capped the scoring.