Mikael Backlund, Flames beat Kraken, end 6-game skid

Mikael Backlund scored twice and Martin Pospisil tallied in his NHL debut as the Calgary Flames snapped a six-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the host Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.

Noah Hanifan, Yegor Sharangovich and Rasmus Andersson also scored for Calgary and goaltender Dan Vladar made 17 saves.

Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen and Jaden Schwartz had goals for Seattle, which had won two in a row and gone 3-1-1 over its previous five games. Philipp Grubauer stopped 25 of 29 shots.

Trailing 2-1, the Flames tallied three times in a five-minute span to take the lead.

Hanifan tied it at the 19-minute mark of the second period, just before a Seattle penalty was to expire. His wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle beat a screened Grubauer.

The Flames took their first lead at 1:33 of the third as Sharangovich, stationed in the high slot, tipped Nikita Zadorov's shot from the left point into the net.

Backlund made it 4-2 four minutes into the third as he poked the puck into an open net after Grubauer made a sprawling save on A.J. Greer's breakaway.

Schwartz scored on a tip with 1:31 remaining off a pass from Matty Beniers and an extra attacker on the ice to make it 4-3, but Backlund and Andersson had empty-netters in the final 48 seconds.

Bjorkstrand gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 9:56 of the first period on a wrist shot into the upper left corner of the net from the top of the right faceoff circle. The man advantage came because Calgary's Andrew Mangiapane was assessed a match penalty for cross-checking Seattle's Jared McCann.

The Flames tied it on Pospisil's goal at 13:59 of the first on a rebound off a three-on-two rush just after Mangiapane's penalty had expired.

Seattle regained the lead as Tolvanen tallied at 16:22 of the period. Yanni Gourde forced a turnover just inside the Calgary blue line, took a return pass from Devin Shore and fed Tolvanen for a one-timer from the slot.