What can you say about the 2014/15 Calgary Flames? Every time you think they might be done, they rise again and surprise everyone. By all accounts, they have been looking tired lately, as a season of never quitting and never giving up seemed to be catching up with them. But never count them out. After a solid win in Nashville yesterday, the Flames battled and clawed to a gutsy 5-3 win in Dallas tonight.
Just 5 days ago, the Stars visited Calgary and came away with a 4-3 SO win that really stung the Flames’ and their playoff chances. But revenge was swift and sweet. The loss doesn’t officially eliminate Dallas, but it effectively does. With 84 points, they trail Winnipeg by 6 for the final playoff spot and only have 5 games to do anything about it.
As for the Flames, it was a huge 2 points and 4 points in a little over 24 hours. Meanwhile, the Kings lost 4-1 Chicago, so Calgary has a 3 point cushion for 3rd place in the Pacific, though the Kings have a game in hand. They also vault past the Jets, though they too have played one fewer game. Never count this team out.
The Flow
The Flames were looking for a quick start and some quality goaltending. They didn’t get either. Just 40 seconds in, Spezza entered the zone a fired a wrist shot from the top of the circle. Hiller was down early and back in his net and Spezza picked the corner above his glove. The Flames then had some good pressure for a few shifts, led once again by the fourth line. A Stars PP gave them some chances, but they couldn’t connect. Then a Flames PP and Gaudreau made a really nice play controlling the puck then finding Wideman alone in the slot and he beat Lehtonen to tie the game. It was Wideman’s 14th, a career high. Then a couple more Dallas power plays, the second one looked like no contact from Ferland’s stick but a high-sticking call regardless. And Seguin made them pay, moving in from the left sidewall and snapping one to the far side past Hiller, giving Dallas a 2-1 lead after one. Shots were 10-5 Stars. Last week in Calgary, the Stars scored early and late in the second period, tonight they scored in the first and last minutes of the first.
The second started with some even play for a few minutes before Roussel got in behind the defense but Hiller turned him away with a nice glove save. Then the Stars really took over for a few minutes after that, hemming the Flames in their own zone for extended periods. But Hiller held the fort and Hartley used his time-out to keep things together. Then the Flames moved up ice and Hudler banged in a puck from in front on a delayed penalty call. It was Hudler’s 29th of the season. After that, the momentum changed entirely and the Flames built off a couple good shifts. Then Diaz channelled his inner Gaudreau-ness. He took the puck in from the point, deked wide and got Lehtonen to over-commit, then kept going around the net. All the Stars were tangled up in front with Backlund, allowing Diaz to finish the wrap-around into a wide open net for one of the nicest goals we’ve seen in quite a while. And suddenly it was 3-2 Flames. Shortly afterward, Monahan chased down a puck in the corner and passed it to Gaudreau in the slot. He fired a beautiful wrist shot over Lehtonen’s shoulder to extend the lead to 2 and end Lehtonen’s night. It was an incredible turnaround as the Flames just completely took over the game after looking to be dead in the water. Then Brent Ritchie went after Monahan with a brutal hit to the head in the neutral zone. Monahan was stunned on the play but Ritchie only got 2 minutes, despite the fact that it looked bad enough for a league review. That put a damper on a fantastic period. In the end, the Flames outshot the Stars 16-11 and jumped out to a 4-2 lead.
The Flames had a couple good shifts to start the third but then the Stars hemmed them into their zone again. Hiller lost his stick and even though he was able to pick it up, he wasn’t ready for Demer’s point shot which tipped off the traffic in front and found the net, cutting the lead in half. That gave the Stars life. They had several chances over the next few minutes and then Engelland was given a penalty – the Stars’ 4th PP of the game. But the Flames’ PK, which Sportsnet says has given up only 12 goals since Jan 1st (tied for 1st in the league), was solid. With about 7 minutes left, Eaves grabbed a rebound in front and spun a backhand at the net but it clanged off the post. The Stars continued with relentless pressure for the rest of the game. With the goalie on the bench, Brodie grabbed the puck in front and carried it smartly out of the zone and over centre before shooting at the empty net. His backhand missed but the rebound came out to Backlund and he buried it to cement the huge win for the Flames. Final score was 5-3. The shots were 15-4 in the 3rd, and 36-25 overall, but as all Flame fans know, Calgary is the anti-Corsi. It was a hard fought, and well-earned win.
Three Stars
1.Johnny Gaudreau: 1G, 1A, 2P +2 and 2 blocked shots. He was the offensive catalyst all night and also had several good defensive palys, including a diving stick to disrupt a pass in the last minute.
2.Rafa Diaz: His goal alone was star-worthy but he had a solid game all around. He and Schlemko played a spirited game together.
3.Deryk Engelland: Thought about picking Hiller, but he let in a bad goal and so many of the D gave yeoman efforts in this one. I thought Brodie was great, but Engelland had 7 – yes, seven – of Calgary’s 31 blocked shots.
Big Save
Midway through the second period, with the Flames already down a goal, and after Hiller had just stoned Roussel on a partial breakaway, the Stars pinned the Flames in their own zone for more than a minute. The Flames were completely gassed and the Stars were throwing the puck around. They were clearly in trouble when McKenzie was set up in the slot. He fired a hard shot but Hiller flashed his glove to knock it down and Brodie dumped the rebound down the ice. After a time-out call by Hartley, normalcy was restored. Less than a minute later, Hudler tied the game and completely changed its course.
The Goat
Kari Lehtonen was 5-0 lifetime against the Flames. But they got revenge on this night, beating him 4 times on 19 shots, including Diaz’ beautiful deke that left him so far out of the play that Diaz could have had a smoke before bothering to put the puck in the empty net.
Mr. Clutch
Despite allowing a very soft goal on the first shot of the game (it seems like he does that far too often), Hiller was huge in the second period, turning away several good chances for the Stars as they were in total control and looking to bust the game open. Hiller kept the Flames in it until they turned the tide.
Odds and Ends
With a goal and as assist, Gaudreau reached 60 points to regain the rookie scoring lead. That makes him only the 3rd rookie to reach 60 since Kane had 72 points in 07/08 (MacKinnon last year and Skinner in 2011 each had 63)… Hudler’s second period goal was his 10th in March, to go along withn 13 assists. The 23 points easily lead the entire NHL… CP poster Oling_Roachinen noted after last game that Lance Bouma had more even strength goals than Sidney Crosby (16 for Bouma and 15 for Sid). As crazy as that is, I decided to check into ice-time for a more detailed look at it, fully expecting to see that Bouma had played more ES minutes. Much to my surprise, Bouma has played almost 230 FEWER minutes. Bouma has scored a goal every 56 minutes of ES TOI. Crosby has scored every 75 minutes of ES TOI, or put another way, Bouma scores 1.06 goals every 60 minutes while Crosby scores 0.80. Insane… Kris Russell moved closer to an NHL record for blocked shots. Volchenkov posted 276 in the ’06 season and Russell now sits at 271 with 6 games remaining… With Wideman and Diaz scoring tonight, the Flames’ defense has now scored 45 goals this season, good for 2nd in the NHL (last year they had 32)… That was the Flames’ 42nd win of the season. The last time the Oilers won more than half their games they had a guy named Gretzky on the team… They are now tied with Pittsburgh for 11th in the league in Ws… The Flames are now 5th in the league for goal scoring, ahead of Pitt, Washington, Detroit and Chicago, to name a few… That was the 18th time that Dallas has given up 5 or more goals – the Flames have only done it 6 times…
Next Up
The road trip continues in St. Louis on Thursday. Game time 6pm on Sportsnet.
Lines:
Lance Bouma – Mikael Backlund – David Jones
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Mason Raymond – Marcus Granlund – Joe Colborne
Michael Ferland – Matt Stajan – Drew Shore
TJ Brodie – Deryk Engelland
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
David Schlemko – Rapha Diaz
Jonas Hiller
