Well that was something wasn’t it?
Two good goaltenders beat for 10 regular time goals on just 47 shots, but I honestly wouldn’t say they played all that poorly (save for maybe the Panthers go ahead goal in the third). A Calgary 4-2 lead in the third period blown with three straight Florida goals, only to see a late Sam Bennett goal send the game to overtime. An overtime period that featured a late powerplay, and then a shoot out where Calgary goes perfect both in shooting and shot stopping in a crazy 6-5 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
Line Up Changes
With Sam Bennett coming back into the lineup after missing two games, Tobias Rieder fresh off of snapping his 18 month goalless streak. Peters skated his top line unchanged, but had Michael Frolik back up to the second line, Bennett joining Derek Ryan and Andrew Mangiapane on the third line. Finally Milan Lucic and with Mark Jankowski and Austin Czarnik on the fourth line.
Must be satisfying for Austin Czarnik not to be the guy to sit when the team is healthy, as he largely did for all of last season.
On the blueline Oliver Kylington is back into the lineup for Michael Stone and back with Rasmus Andersson on the third pairing. TJ Brodie moves back up to the first pairing with captain Mark Giordano.
David Rittich gets the start.
Peters Pre Game Blender
How to tell a coach is frustrated with his team’s production?
The guy is threatening change before puck drop. At media availability today Peters let on that he has a complete set of different lines that he may go to quickly tonight. By moving Elias Lindholm (not to center), he said all four lines end up changing.
Not a bad plan to get that top line wanting to score early and hold the group together.
The Burke Shot Clock
The other day Brian Burke offered up an opinion on the desk about applying a shot clock to overtime in a way to get teams to force the play more and lay back less.
Tonight might have been a good example of why maybe he was on to something.
The Panthers played keep away every time they got the puck, both to the detriment of Calgary’s attack, but also the offence from their own club.
Boring!
Dot Dominance
The Flames have been much maligned this season so far for their complete ineptitude in the face off circle despite having centers that were able to deliver a top five finish last year.
Tonight? Calgary finishes with 66% in the face off circle on the strength of Sean Monahan and Mark Jankowski both having 80% nights in the dot.
Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.
Third Line Good / Fourth Line Owned
The bottom six shuffle continued again tonight with Rieder out, and Bennett back in.
The third line of Ryan, Bennett and Mangiapane seemed to get better as the game went on and were rewarded with a hard working game tying goal late with Mangiapane digging the puck out and Sam Bennett putting it home with about three minutes to play.
The fourth line (Lucic, Jankowski and Czarnik) struggled though as they got hemmed in a few times, and were pretty much run over all night.
Czarnik Injury
The bottom six may be changing again however, as Austin Czarnik left the game after the second period in what looked like an awkward fall after a board battle as the period expired.
He left the ice gingerly, and didn’t return, suggesting we may see Rieder back in for the Regina game.
The David Rittich Night
Pretty hard to give a goalie a pass when he gives up five goals on only 23 shots on the night, a performance that lands at .783 for 65 minutes of work.
Thought only the fifth goal was questionable however.
Some good looks from the Panthers, and a lot of traffic in front of the net made the night difficult, not not mention the longer periods of inactivity.
For comparison sake the $10M man at the other end also gave up five goals on 24 shots, though he seemed to have the more difficult night when it came to some of his circus saves.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 24 Panthers 23
Face Offs – Flames 66%
Special Teams – Flames 1/3 Panthers 0/2
Player Stats:
Points – Two point nights for all of Matthew Tkachuk, Michael Frolik, TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano; Tkachuk with the two goal game.
Plus/Minus – Leading the way with +1 nights were Derek Ryan, Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm.
Shots – Elias Lindholm bested his teammates with four shots on goal.
Fancy Stats
The Flames had the best of the five on five shot attempts on the night at 51% with period splits of 58%/50% and 48%. High danger shot attempts were even at ten apiece on the night five on five.
In all situations the Flames had 56% of the shot attempts and 59% of the high danger chances, and a 53% of the xGF%.
Individually, Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic led the way after a rough start to the season with 65% numbers on the night. They were joined by Elias Lindholm in the 60s. At the bottom of the pile the fourth line all finished under 20% on the night with a really rough night.
