CALGARY, Alberta -- Sean Monahan wasn't surprised that linemate Johnny Gaudreau set him up for an easy goal Sunday.

All Monahan had to do was keep his stick on the ice to tap in Gaudreau's feed at 9:09 of the third period to lead the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals.

"That's Johnny," said Monahan, who leads the Flames with four game-winning goals this season. "We see it day in, day out. He's got great hands and he's got quick feet. He reads the game better than anyone I know. If you get open in a quiet area, you're usually going to find the puck. It showed again tonight."

Gaudreau finished with two assists, while Micheal Ferland also scored for the Flames (6-6-0), who snapped their four-game losing streak at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

"It's a big win for us," said Gaudreau, who leads Calgary in points with three goals and 12 assists through 12 games. "We've struggled the past few games here. We've been playing well but haven't been finishing the games off. Tonight they tied it up, but we played well in the third, found a way to get the game-winner there. It's just a good effort from everyone."

Calgary goalie Mike Smith finished with 30 saves to improve his record to 6-5-0.

Jakub Vrana scored the lone goal of the game for the Capitals (5-6-1), who skated to a 5-2 road win over the Edmonton Oilers one night earlier.

"We can't complain on that," Vrana said. "Every team has to play back-to-back. I don't think it's that. It's just we did (make) some mistakes there today. It didn't pay off."

Making just his fourth start of the season, Washington goalie Phillip Grubauer stopped 36 shots but saw his record fall to 0-3-1.

"They put a lot of shots on net," Grubauer said. "The boards are really lively. Especially from the blue line, they shot always against the boards and it always popped out, so they did a good job in front of our net and they made it really tough to see around sometimes. We did a pretty good job most of the times boxing the guys out and letting me see the shots."

The Flames had some early pressure on Grubauer but didn't get rewarded for their efforts. Grubauer made a nice kick save to turn aside a scoring chance by Monahan before getting a glove on a shot off the stick of Gaudreau.

The Caps pressed hard to get the opening goal early in the second period, but Smith stood his ground to stop two shots by Alex Ovechkin and one by Dmitry Orlov.

Ferland opened the scoring at 2:08 of the second. He took a pass from Gaudreau and dropped it back to the point to defenseman Brett Kulak before heading toward the net. Kulak then fired a shot on net that Ferland tipped past Grubauer.

"Ferly's a big body," Monahan said. "He skates well and plays hard. That's a big goal. He got our team going there, and he played a full 60 tonight and played great."

The Flames nearly went up 2-0 on their next rush up the ice, but Troy Brouwer's shot hit the post behind Grubauer and bounced wide.

Smith had to be sharp later in the middle period to stop a point-blank shot by Tom Wilson.

Vrana scored his third of the season at 4:19 of the third period when his shot trickled through Smith's pads and just across the goal line.

"I thought we had a good forecheck there," said Vrana, who took a pass from T.J. Oshie after the puck hit a linesman's skate to stay in the Calgary zone. "A little bit lucky bounce on the blue line and then Oshie made a nice play. I just tried to shoot it on the net, and thankfully it went in."

That set the stage for Gaudreau to set up Monahan for his game-winner.

"Any win feels good, but especially right now at home it was the one that we needed the most," Monahan said.

NOTES: Flames RW Jaromir Jagr missed his fourth straight game due to a lower-body injury. C Mark Jankowski, who was called up from the AHL's Stockton Heat, suited up for his fourth straight game. ... The Flames scratched LW Tanner Glass, C Freddie Hamilton and D Matt Bartkowski. ... After playing 81 games for the Flames last season, RW Alex Chiasson was invited to attend training camp with the Capitals. He eventually signed a one-year contract and has put up one assist in 11 games so far with Washington. ... The Capitals scratched D Taylor Chorney, RW Brett Connolly and LW Nathan Walker.