The long and winding “road” continued in Columbus with the Flames inexplicably looking to up their road trek to four wins and a loss, all while getting out played on numerous occasions and finding their fair share of bounces.
So it was somewhat ironic that Kari Ramo gave up two goals on his first 4 shots, neither the stoppable variety, putting the Flames in an early hole in Ohio. The hole as it turned out was too deep to dig out of, as the Flames dropped a come from behind 3-2 decision to the Jackets. One more and the team will actually skate once again on Saddledome ice.
The Flow
A start that looked a lot like continued chaos from Chicago as the Flames got pinned in their own zone, took a penalty, and were down two goals before the game was six minutes old. From there the visitors settled down and actually carried the play for the rest of the period, but emerged from the first frame down two.
The second was a pretty even Steven period, back and forth, with the Flames out shooting their hosts. The only goal went to the Jackets on a goal mouth tap in, a marker by Matt Calvert. Calgary pressed in the last few minutes of the period, but came up empty, heading to the third down by three.
The third period has been the Flames strongest all season, and this one was no different. Good chances, but little puck luck until a fortunate broken play as a powerplay expired resulted in Glencross tapping the puck to a wide open Mason Raymond for the team’s first goal of the night. A few minutes later Giordano found Jooris in behind the Jacket’s defenders and his breakaway chance resulted in a first NHL goal. The Flames pinned the Jackets deep with 2 minutes to play, and then pulled Ramo to add to the fun, getting a few blue chippers and a goal post, but failed to tie things up.
Three Stars
1.Matt Calvert: Scored the game winner, and added an assist to pace the home town Jackets.
2.Mark Letestu: Played a strong physical game and chipped in two assists.
3.Josh Jooris: Good energetic game from the training camp surprise. Scored his first NHL goal, and could have had a few points.
Big Save
Kari Ramo simply stoned Cam Atkinson with just five minutes to play when the young Jacket took a pass from the corner and directed the puck towards the lower half of the net. Ramo sprung out his right pad to stone him.
The Goat
This won’t be popular but I’m going with Bob Hartley and his lineup. The Jackets don’t have a lot of scare in their lineup so why dress both McGrattan and Bollig and then only play them 5 minutes each in the club’s second straight set of three games in four nights? I’m good with sitting down Gaudreau in principle but this wasn’t the game to sit he and Setoguchi when they needed gas.
Mr. Clutch
I liked the spunk in Kris Russell’s game as the former Jacket clearly wanted to put it to his old mates. The diminutive blueliner moved the puck well, was physical when he needed to be and was third behind only the top pairing when it came to ice time.
Odds and Ends
When Scott Hartnell played for the Flyers he had this great following called Hartnell Down, a counter that posted the number of times the player fell down on the night. The tally was always large. Someone may want to start a Glencross Ass Plant counter in Calgary, as the Calgary veteran seems to have taken a page out of the Philly Flopper’s book, Glencross fell down a half dozen times tonight. … Had to chuckle at Jooris on the bench after he scored. Reached down grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, squeezed it to his mouth… nothing, tried to open it with his glove… nothing, then his bare hand… nothing, then put it down and grabbed a water bottle and fed himself a squirt. … My nightly face off commentary will be brief, they got pasted. 37% on the draws tonight, back to the drawing board. … Jooris didn’t look out of place at all, and will likely get the start again in Winnipeg, deservedly so. Does that mean the same roster? McGrattan out for Setoguchi? Bollig out for Gaudreau? Not sure. … The Gaudreau debate was in full force today with the Francis article in the Sun and his later take on the radio. I certainly see both sides of the argument, but still lean to letting him sort it out at the NHL level. He is still noticeable to me, and creating chances. If he was a complete non factor I’d see it differently. … Brodie is stronger this year. He was always smart, and patient with the puck, possessed ice water in his veins in traffic, but now he has the ability to leverage opponents and take the puck away. Special player. … Through 5 games the Flames were 29th in Corsi % for, with 40.2%, the beauty of having solid goaltending!
Next Up
The Flames next travel to Winnipeg to take on the Jets, game time 5pm on Sportsnet.
Lines:
Jeri Hudler – Sean Monahan – Josh Jooris
Curtis Glencross – Mikael Backlund – Paul Byron
Mason Raymond – Joe Colborne – Lance Bouma
Brandon Bollig – Matt Stajan – McGrattan
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Ladislav Smid – Raphael Diaz
Kari Ramo
