This just keeps going doesn’t it?
The Flames battled bad bounces against, and then eventually received one for in a come from behind 4-3 overtime victory in Washington on Tuesday night. A game that has now given the Flames 9 points in the last 11 games, and pushes the team four games over .500 in the still young season.
Winning is as contagious as Johnny Gaudreau’s flu bug. Hopefully the former and not the latter passes its way through the upstart Flames.
The Flow
Another solid road period to start the game, as the Flames seem to have righted the slow start issue that plagued them in their first 7 games. The Capitals pinned the Flames in their own zone a bit in the first few minutes, but the Flames levied things off and began to take the play to the hosts. Calgary goes up 1-0 when Lance Bouma finds a Kris Russell shot in the slot and slides in the rebound. A minute later Alexander Ovechkin fired a wrister through the slot that was tipped by Backstrom tying the score and setting the Caps all time points leader mark.
All seemed well in the world when Mark Giordano walked in from the point and fired a backhander past Holtby to put the Flames up 2-1. They had the lead, they were playing great road hockey. Everything was where they wanted it. Then a crazy bounce off the back boards hit Hiller and trickled over the line and the stuffing seemed to come out of every Flame on the bench. Back to back minors and boom 3-2 Washington heading to the third.
Calgary didn’t do a whole lot in the third, as both teams seemed to sit back and watch each other, almost hoping for the game to end. Then a freak bounce of their own of two Caps, a play made possible by a strong Markus Granlund forecheck and the game was tied heading to overtime.
Both teams pushed the pace in the extra period, but a Cap slipping in the Flames zone created an odd man break led by Sean Monahan. He stopped up, dropped the puck to Josh Jooris and then headed to the net to take the feed and bounce the puck by Holtby for the winner. Crazy.
Three Stars
1.Mark Giordano: Another ho hum night for the Calgary captain, with a goal, an assist and almost 26 minutes of ice time.
2.Alexander Ovechkin: Knew coming in he had a chance to set the all time Caps record for points, and picked up two assist, while being dangerous all night.
3.Jonas Hiller: Gave up 3 which is a bucketful for him, but was simply amazing in preserving the one goal deficit, then getting the game to over time. You hear over and over again it’s not necessarily how many its when with top goaltenders.
Big Save
This one is easy. With mere seconds to go in the third period and the game tied 2-2, the Caps find Niklas Backstrom all alone for a one timer into the empty cage, a probable goal that would have registered 19:59 on the clock. Nope … Hiller plays Gumby and gets his right pad on the puck to preserve the point, and set up the second.
The Goat
Sorry Calgarians, but fellow local lad Mike Green was -4, which isn’t easy to do in a 4-3 hockey game. Swiss cheese in coverage in his own zone.
Mr. Clutch
Toss up for the obvious nightly choice when he doesn’t get a game star; TJ Brodie, and either of Monahan or Jooris. I’m going to go with Monahan though. Great patience with the puck on the overtime winner, which is ironic because I was going to mention just that before the over time period happened. Way more poise this season, and now he’s added creating chances to his simply finishing last year.
Odds and Ends
If you want to create a buzz in a rebuild, walk into Montréal and beat the Canadians on national television. Suddenly the Flames and young talent have been creeping up in various corners of Eastern media and blog sites. Very good thing the Flames and Brodie got that contract done before his last few games. That will be a contract of the ages the way the kid is going. … Flames have really fallen again in the face off department. They hung near the middle of the pack for the first 8 or so games, but have now fallen to 28th, likely due to Stajan and Backlund’s departure from the lineup. Monahan was back over the 50% mark in this one though … Don’t look now but Bouma’s second goal in as many games on this trip has him five way tie for 4th in goals on the Flames this season with three. He worked all summer on puck skills so we may see double digits from the fourth liner this year. His one timer in Montréal was a thing of beauty. … Gaudreau was rumoured to miss this one with the flu, but suited up after taking the pre game skate. Maybe that Jooris tweet about the Notebook had him fearful the world would think him soft. … That Jooris pass to Monahan in overtime certainly suggests that the Flames may have more of a player on their hands than they probably expected. Still trying to decide where I see this guy in an every day lineup but he’s elevated himself past fourth line and energy player on this trip. … A big variable in the Flames strong start is the often overlooked Kris Russell. He had a big camp, and was probably the Flames best veteran, and has carried it into the regular season. His 25 minutes of ice time has given Hartley the chance to take two or three minutes out of Brodie and Giordano’s ice time and roll four lines. Makes an impact. … Early sure, but the Oilers are now 9 points behind the Flames with two games in hand. I started mentioning similar gaps last year at this time expecting the gap to close. It never did.
Next Up
Calgary heads to the state of Florida after tonight’s game in Washington, taking on the Lightning on Thursday night. Game time 5.30pm Sportsnet Flames.
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Lines:
Curtis Glencross – Sean Monahan – David Jones
Johnny Gaudreau – Markus Granlund – Jiri Hudler
Sven Baertschi – Paul Byron – Devin Setoguchi
Brandon Bollig – Lance Bouma – Josh Jooris
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Ladislav Smid – Deryk Engellend
Jonas Hiller
