Thank you Jacob Markstorm.
The Toronto Maple Leafs literally ran over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night, but lost the battle of the goaltender with Jacob Markstrom literally stealing one as Jack Campbell whiffed and the Flames skated away with a 5-2 victory.
Midway through the game the Flames were lucky to be tied at 1-1 with the shots 30-12 for the visitors before the Flames scored three goals in three minutes and completely changed the outcome.
That gives the Flames five wins in a row, six of the last seven and 8 of the last 10 as they continue to motor up the Western Standings.
Back to back game exhaustion? Or coming up against a deeper team with speed? I guess we’ll find out.
The Lineup
Back to back? No matter, Darryl Sutter walks out the exact same roster as last night including starter Jacob Markstrom.
So that means up front it’s Elias Lindholm with Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mickael Backlund coming off a four point night between Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan between Dillon Dube and Brett Ritchie, and Adam Ruzicka between Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
On the blueline as per usual as well; Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
And as I said Jacob Markstrom gets the start.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 63.9%
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman 63.6%
Dube – Monahan – Ritchie 66.7%
Lucic – Ruzicka- Lewis 47.2%
Hanifin – Andersson 57.4%
Kylington – Tanev 60.0%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 58.0%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.2
Who They Playing?
The Maple Leafs have a 7th ranked CF% based on a 6th ranked offence and a 12th ranked team defense. Their xGF% split is better at 4th overall, once again with the offence leading the way.
They have the 10th ranked five on five shooting percentage, though they have a 19th ranked five on five save percentage driving a 12th ranked PDO.
The Leafs have the #1 ranked powerplay, over 30% so the Flames had best stay out of the box tonight. They have the 4th ranked penalty kill, just behind the Flames at 84.5%.
First Period Powerplays
The Flames and Leafs may have been tied at one after the first 20 minutes, but didn’t that have a feeling of a game lost due to Calgary’s inability to literally do anything with four powerplay attempts in the first period?
The days of the even up call have pretty much gone away; refs no longer feel the need to even everything up through 60 minutes, but you just can’t squander that many opportunities and win most nights.
Split Personality Second
Man what a second period.
The Flames were far from sharp in the first period, but the Leafs completely took over to start the second period scoring first but then having Calgary tie it up quickly and continue to hang on.
It looked very much like the inevitable Toronto win, and probably by a large margin.
But then the game changed when the Flames scored three goals in three minutes and completely changed the complexion of the game.
Can that second half happen without the first half performance from Markstrom? And by that I mean, if Toronto got into a 3-1 lead would Calgary have still scored three late? I’m guessing not.
Turnaround fueled by goaltending.
Backlund Another Big Game
Two more points for Mikael Backlund and a physical shut down role against Austin Matthews as the Flames’ veteran was clearly tasked with shutting down the Toronto sniper.
His back pass to Andrew Mangiapane changed the course of the game, then later he won a face off on a powerplay that lead to the Oliver Kylington goal.
Second half Backlund continues to churn along.
Secondary Scoring
The depth scoring continues to roll for the Flames.
Backlund as I described, but another assist for Blake Coleman and another home goal for Andrew Mangiapane.
Add in three goals from the blueline and the Flames once again didn’t need to rely on their top line to carry the load.
The top line wasn’t invisible of course with Tkachuk picking up two assists, Elias Lindholm a goal, and Johnny Gaudreau with a helper.
Markstrom
This isn’t even close to a win, let alone a convincing one without his play pretty much through the whole 60 minutes, but certainly in the game’s first 30.
The Flames have played some pretty damn good team defense all season; they haven’t had to have their goaltender steal many games, but Jacob Markstrom definitely stole this one.
His robbery in Pittsburgh was obvious, and I think tonight was the second biggest case of larceny on the season.
He’s locked in … don’t wear him out.
2015 Draft
Seems like a good night to talk about the 2015 draft.
The Flames go in with a first and three seconds in a rebuild. They turn the first and two seconds into Dougie Hamilton. Then draft Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington in the second round and Andrew Mangiapane in the 6th.
Two plus years later they trade Dougie Hamilton for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin, and with that the 2015 draft gives the Flames three of their top four defensemen, their first line center, and their second line sniping winner.
Lots made of the 2016 draft, but the 2015 draft was a franchise changer.
Leafs Have the Goaltending?
I mentioned above that the Leafs have a middling team save percentage, and tonight it was pretty much on display the difference a top notch goaltender can make.
Jack Campbell was every bit as much sketchy as Jacob Markstrom was elite tonight as the goaltending mismatch pretty much spelled doom for the visitors despite Toronto fans yelling “SOUP” on every one of his early saves.
Not sure the Leafs have the horse to end their first round run of disasters.
Sutter and his Mask
Darryl Sutter has been pretty quietly vocal about his desire to get life back to normal in Alberta, and that was really on display behind the bench tonight as he barely wore his mask.
Snipping off one of the bands to hold it in place let him use it as a bow tie for most of the night.
Special Teams
Given how this game started I’m actually shocked to say the Flames got the edge in special teams tonight.
The Leafs came in with the number one ranked powerplay and 4th ranked penalty kill, but the only special team goal scored all night was the Oliver Kylington game winner.
Calgary’s first period powerplay was beyond awful, but in the end they found a way to hit the scoresheet.
Standings and Record
Well would you look at that! The Flames win over Toronto puts them into 2nd place in the division for the first time in what feels like forever. With 56 points in 44 games the Flames and their 25-13-6 record leap frog both teams from the Las Angeles area and rightfully claim their spot. The Flames have been the first or second best team in the Pacific by points percentage for about a month, but now claim that spot with out right points as well.
They still have three games in hand on the Kings and four games in hand on the Ducks.
Calgary uses up their game in hand on the Edmonton Oilers but now has a seven point lead over their division rivals.
They are three points back of the Knights with four games in hand.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 26 / Leafs 48
Face Offs: Flames 41% / Leafs 59%
Powerplay: Flames 1-5 / Leafs 0-3
Fancy Stats
The Flames were badly outplayed tonight and the numbers certainly reflected that. Five on five the Flames had 39% of the shot attempts with period splits of 38%/42% and 38% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 41%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 47%, with a 7-8 split.
In all situations the Flames had 40% of the shot attempts, 44% of the expected goals, and 50% of the high danger splits. Keep in mind Calgary had two additional powerplays.
Individually, the Flames had only two players with above water metrics … Nikita Zadorov with 52% and Johnny Gaudreau with 50%. The rest of the team got worked with the fourth line of Adam Ruzicka, Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis having a miserable night, averaging around 12%.
