On the second game of their three game homestand the Flames broke bread.
Er … bread broke loose?
Yeah that’s more like it.
Andrew Mangiapane with his first career hat trick and four point game powered the Flames to a five goal third period, erasing a 3-1 Ducks lead and cruising to a 6-4 final score in a game that looked to be slipping away.
Mangiapane was joined by linemates Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund in completely dominating the Ducks on the ice, and were finally rewarded with a point spree in the third period to halt the Flames current skid at a single loss.
Line Up Changes
A pretty severe flu bug continues to run through the team, as Derek Ryan sits out again and was actually placed on the IR retroactively to the Chicago game. Mikael Backlund was a 50/50 chance to play but suits up, Glen Gawdin was called up and looking to make his NHL debut, but with Backlund going he’s munching popcorn and getting a good payday.
With that the lines are the same as they were against Chicago. Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm. Mikael Backlund between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane. Sam Bennett between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube, and finally Mark Jankowski between Zach Rinaldo and Tobias Rieder.
On the blueline one change, as Alexander Yelesin comes in for Brandon Davidson on the third pairing with Oliver Kylington. Noah Hanifin goes with Rasmus Andersson and TJ Brodie is paired with Michael Stone.
Cam Talbot gets the start after shutting the Ducks out last week.
Two Types of Frustration
Seems like this season has featured two very different types of hard to watch Calgary Flames hockey.
A lot of times they don’t come out ready (opponents have scored on their first shots nine times this season), get down, and then chase the game for the rest of the night and never get back on even terms.
Today looked like it was setting up to be the second type; the version where the team comes out looking solid, doesn’t cash in on their chances and finds themselves even through half a game despite playing well. Then the opponent scores that second period goal and the team just never seems to find it again.
That was pretty the script wasn’t it, until Mangiapane picked the puck off the wall and beat Ryan Miller on a backhand making the score close. From there it was the 2018-19 Calgary Flames taking the stage with an offensive explosion and come from behind victory.
Turnovers Costly
Two second period turnovers … one blatant by Noah Hanifin and the Flames are down 2-1 heading to the third period despite out shooting the Ducks 18-10.
The first turnover a Sam Bennett pass that wasn’t skated into by Dillon Dube, that just happened to coincide with one defenseman changing and the other, TJ Brodie rushing into the play results in a breakaway.
The other a Noah Hanifin gaff where he fans on the puck resulting in a walk in chance for Jocob Silfverberg.
Talbot vs Rittich
The tale of two goalies just continues and continues with neither guy taking the number one spot for his own.
Personally, despite the numbers saying the exact opposite, I’m more comfortable with David Rittich in net than Cam Talbot. Talbot is getting it done, but it seems more scrambly and a little more fortunate; tonight he made three saves with the skinny part of his goal stick for example.
But a win is a win, and Talbot has one back to back starts with 12 goals of run support supplied by his teammates. Rittich was pulled against Chicago and lost in L.A. despite being the team’s best player most of the night.
Ideally they both find the groove and push each other the rest of the way.
Top Six Emerging?
Seems to me this is the closest the Flames have had to a true top six since what seems like October.
Early in the season the Monahan/Gaudreau/Lindholm line just couldn’t find it, leaving Bill Peters and then Geoff Ward to scramble the lineup and search for answers.
Elias Lindholm was moved to center, and he clicked with Matthew Tkachuk, but the trickle down was the loss of the team’s best right winger to center, and the fish out of water result for the team’s second best center in Mikael Backlund.
In the last handful of games the Flames have gone back to last year’s first line, and essentially 3M with “M”angiapane putting a wrinkle into the monicker with a last initial instead of “M”ichael Frolik.
Today the modified 3M was lights out on pretty much every shift, driving the play, getting pucks deep, and owning the cycle. and in the end driving the bus in the team’s comeback.
Backlund back on his game, and Andrew Mangiapane honestly just continuing what he was doing but now getting rewarded is the difference, leaving opposing teams two lines to check and a split focus going forward.
How the hell did Mikeal Backlund manage to not get a point in this one?
Bullet Dodged
Everyone wants to reach for the “must win” game, we do it too often. Too much importance is placed on individual games.
However didn’t today have the feel of one of those games you remember when a team misses the playoffs? A great road trip in winning three of four games, and posting six goals in the three wins would have been completely wiped out if the team would have coughed up their second straight home ice loss to non playoff teams.
The team carried the play against Chicago, but their defensive zone and especially slot coverage was Pee Wee level and they paid for it. Tonight they turned the puck over and got burned and looked like they were running out of runway.
Phew.
More on Eat Bread
If you see the box score and not the game you’ll see Mangiapane got his third goal into a empty net, and think well that was fortunate.
If you saw the game you’d see Mangiapane engaging Duck captain Ryan Getzlaf at the blueline, slamming him to the ice and creating a turnover that led to the goal.
That was pretty much symbolic of the guy’s afternoon. Finds a rebound in traffic for his first. Takes the puck off the wall dances two Ducks and beats Miller with a great backhand. Even his assist was a good one as he found the puck in the opposition corner and found Tkachuk in the home plate.
Great afternoon for a guy that was getting his share of chances, but was unable to finish for the most part in any city other than Edmonton.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 43 Ducks 30
Face Offs – Flames 50%
Special Teams – Flames 0/4 Ducks 0/2
Player Stats:
Points – The day belonged to Andrew Mangiapane who led the way with a four point game on the back of his first hat trick in his career.
Plus/Minus – Mangiapane was the man in terms of +/- as well with a +4 on the day.
Shots – Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm each had six shots on goal.
Fancy Stats
Despite the need for a comeback, this game was pretty much all Calgary from start to finish. The team finished the game with 61% of the five on five shot attempts on period splits of 64%/55% and 65%, as they pretty much dominated play from drop to buzzer. In terms of high danger chances it was an even wider gap with Calgary having 71% on a 17-7 margin. The Flames had an expected goal split of 66% on the day.
In all situations the Flames had 61% of the shot attempts, 69% of the high danger chances and an expected goal split of 68%.
Individually a solid night as well as you’d expect. Not surprisingly the team was led by the second line with Backlund at 85%, Tkachuk at 84% and Mangiapane equalling TJ Brodie each at 76%. Michael Stone, Mark Jankowski and Alexander Yelesin also had big afternoons in terms of shot attempt splits. The third line all finished under 50% as Sam Bennett, Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube had numbers in the 40s.
