And a winning streak …
With a rough go in Montreal, a split due to the sublime goaltending of Jacob Markstrom, the Flames get to enjoy a two game win streak after a 4-3 shoot out victory in Winnipeg tonight.
The game itself though was a complete flip of the script compared to what we’ve seen in the last two games, potentially playing their best 60 minute game of the season.
The win gives the Flames a 4-3-1 record on the season, with two more games in Winnipeg (tomorrow and Thursday) before returning home to play the Oilers on Saturday night.
If the Flames walk that line out more often than not, they’ll be just fine.
Line Up Changes
It’s always interesting to see how a hockey city, and the team behaves after a win regardless of how that win came to be.
Jacob Markstrom stole them two points in Montreal, but they won, so there isn’t a single change to their lineup.
Elias Lindholm centers for Matthew Tkachuk and Dillon Dube, although the top line had their worst outing of the season in Montreal on Monday night. Sean Monahan continues to center for Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Mangiapane. Mikael Backlund centers Mr. Controversy, Sam Bennett as well as Josh Leivo, and finally Derek Ryan between Milan Lucic and Joakim Nordstrom.
On the blueline no changes again. Mark Giordano with Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev, a duo that has been the Flames best to date. And finally Juuso Valimaki and Nikita Nesterov after a bit of a bounce back game from a rough outing Thursday in Montreal.
Markstrom starts again after his shut out win in Montreal.
Special Team Woes
The Flames almost, almost lost that game on special teams alone.
The Jets were given two first period powerplay opportunities, both resulting in Kyle Connor goals and what looked to be a road loss in Winnipeg.
The Flames came up empty on their two chances (the Jets had four), but saved the day with five on five hockey with three even strength goals including a Chris Tanev goal from his own blueline returning a bit of the odd misfortune the Flames have seen this season.
The powerplay goes zero for two on the night ending their streak of powerplay goals in every game to start the season at seven.
Monahan, Different Player
Quite a game from Sean Monahah, the guy seems to be a different player.
Rub outs, open ice push offs, hustling to finish checks he seems bigger and it seems like the opposition is giving him more room because of it.
He had some chances and could have gotten the Flames going earlier with his chances, and was money in the shoot out with a “make it look easy” goal on Conner Hallebucyk.
Fourth Line Coming On
What a night for the fourth line.
After a the first few goes of the season I was pretty much convinced that Milan Lucic and Joakim Nordstrom on a line pretty much spelled doom for the Flames going forward.
Yet there were solid in game two in Montreal, and in absolute beast mode tonight as they did some wear down damage on the Jet’s defense and pretty much ran the show from a possession stand point.
It wasn’t pretty.
It wasn’t scoreboard effective.
But it played a role in the overall win by creating good zone time, wear on the Jet’s defense and was low key important in the victory.
The Tanev Goal
Haven’t seen that for a long long time.
When I was a kid Willi Plett eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks with a game three sweep victory from center ice, something I’ve been looking for on Youtube ever since.
Also early 1980s Dan Labraaten scored from center ice on the Buffalo Sabres helping to wipe out a 4-0 after 40 deficit at the Saddledome and create a 4-4 tie.
Tonight just seven seconds into the second period Chris Tanev tried to forward a puck off the wall near his own blueline towards a Calgary forward with an eye to tipping it in. The puck missed the Calgary forward, galloped into the Jets zone and beat a dumbfounded Hallebucyk and into the net.
Just like that the game was 1-2 instead of 0-2 pretty much setting the emotional stage for a comeback win.
The Geoff Ward Blender
Have to give Geoff Ward credit for the line blender that created some momentum and played a key in the come from behind win.
A lack of five on five chemistry, heightened by a benching of Dillon Dube for back to back penalties saw a crazy variation of line combinations in the third period that seemed to spur the team towards victory.
We saw Tkachuk with Backlund, Lindholm with Lucic, Bennett with Monahan and Gaudreau … but only for a shift at a time before the blender ripped into the roster again and changed things up once again.
The blender doesn’t always work, but tonight it was super effective in finding some third period legs.
Johnny Shoot Out
How many times have we seen this guy force a five hole option only to get easily turned away?
Tonight though an extra move as Gaudreau shows back hand but then stutters back to the middle to beat Hellebucyk through the wickets for the game winner.
Gaudreau has been money to start the season, continuing his points in every game to start the campaign and now has 10 points in eight games including six goals.
It’s only 1/7 of a season, but it sure looks like the Gaudreau/Monahan combination is a force again for the Flames. Now lets see it in the playoffs right?
Dube Benched
Dumb elbowing penalty was the first call.
A phantom holding penalty was the second.
But the two offence occurrence was enough to get Dillon Dube stapled to the bench for the third period, sending the lines into turmoil.
Honestly I thought the Hanifin penalty, as well as the Stanley call on Lindholm were pretty tacky. Six powerplays on the night combined and it should have been three in my mind.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 28 Jets 28
Face Offs – Flames 50%
Special Teams – Flames 0/2 Habs 2/4
Player Stats:
Points – Elias Lindholm with his second straight two assist game led the Flames in points.
Plus/Minus – Lindholm joined the fortress pairing of Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev with +2 nights.
Shots – Ironically, with me wondering why the guy won’t shoot, Tanev leads the Flames in shots with four.
Fancy Stats
Solid game for the Flames five on five, maybe their best of the season in 60 minutes. Calgary had 58% of the five on five shot attempts with period splits of 61%/78% and 46%. In terms of high danger chances five on five the Flames had 81% with a 17-4 edge, something that should propel their season averages upward. Expected goal splits fell to Calgary as well with a 75% margin. As I said, the season’s best five on five effort to date.
In all situations the Flames had 54% of the shot attempts, 69% of the high danger scoring chances and an expected goal split of 64%.
Individually, the Flames were led by the fourth line with Joakin Nordstrom leading all skaters with an incredible 91%, followed by his center Derek Ryan at 87%. The super pairing were next in line with Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin at 69% (nice!) and 67%. Sam Bennett and Milan Lucic were both in the 60s as well. At the bottom of the pile were Rasmus Andersson at 38% (a bit of a trend), as well as his partner Mark Giordano and Johnny Gaudreau both under 50%.
