“Sometimes you want to go, … ” where nobody knows your name?
Seems to be the case for the Calgary Flames of late, as the team that can’t get a thing done on home ice won again in Boston tonight 2-1 to grab their third win in four starts on what looked to be a season ending (saving) road trip. The Flames are now two games over .500 on the road, but four games under .500 on home ice in a season that has had pretty much everything go against the expected script.
With a .500 trip now guaranteed, the Flames have stops in Philadelphia and Brooklyn to see if they can really turn their campaign around.
The Flow
The Flames walked out one of their finest road periods of the season, a good sign given how well they finished things off in Columbus the other night. Early they had a 5-1 lead in shots and really had the Bruins chasing the play. The Flames are rewarded when TJ Brodie strips a Bruins attacker and dishes to Stajan who finds Sam Bennett squeezing through two defenders and in on a partial break. He beat Khudobin short side high and it’s 1-0 Flames. Chad Johnson had to be strong when he stopped a surprise Pastrnak shot coming across and the Flames almost go up two in the last 14 seconds when the Backlund line causes chaos late and a Giordano shot is almost rebounded by Backlund and Tkachuk; 1-0 Flamers after 20 minutes, shots 12-5 Calgary.
A solid bend but not break second period for the Flames, as they meet the Bruins push and do a little pushing back of their own. The Bruins get the better of the chances in the period, but other than a solid chance by Brad Marchand the Bruins are pretty much kept to the outside for the period. The Bruins actually score a goal but it’s waved off when video shows Marchand hitting Mark Giordano into Chad Johnson, leaving the Flames goaltender with little chance to recover and get back to his cage before the Bruins steer it into the empty cage. Edge to the Bruins, but another solid road period for the team that seems to be able to play anywhere but Calgary.
If the second was bend don’t break, the third was break but glue it back together again. The Bruins run up a 13-0 shot advantage on the strength of two powerplays, including one that ran up seven shots, but Chad Johnson stood tall and held them in it. Right after the powerplay the Bruins did strike though when Pastrnak found a loose puck with Johnson looking the other way and with that the game looked very much to be going Boston’s way. However an unexpected bounce back just over a minute later had the Flames back out front when Sam Bennett shocked all the Bruins on the ice by passing the puck shortside as he looked to be going around the net leaving a wide open Alex Chiasson to score the go ahead goal. The Bruins get a few more chances, but the Flames hang on for the 2-1 win to run their road trip to 3-1-0, four games into the six game trip.
Possession Pulse
First Period – Shot attempts 15-14 Boston, scoring chances knotted at seven apiece.
Second Period – Shot attempts 21-11 Boston, not many scoring chances though as they were 5-2 in favour of the Bruins.
Third Period – Shot attempts 20-8 Boston, 8-4 Boston in scoring chances.
The Players – Tough game to measure individual player corsi stats with the Flames up for most of the night, but the game closer and the Bruins pushing to tie. Hence the invention of “score adjusted”. Raw data showed Dougie Hamilton at number one again though with 46%. Others in that range include Micheal Ferland, Sam Bennett, Mark Giordano and wait for it … Sean Monahan! The guys pulling up the rear included the entire fourth line and the Brodie/Wideman duo on the blueline.
1. Chad Johnson:No shut out tonight, but stopping 35 of 36 shots in Boston for a huge road victory gets Chad Johnson the nod in back to back games.
2. Sam Bennett: Such a good sign. Scores the opening goal on a laser, and then sets up Chiasson for the winner with the old Kent Nilsson “so you think I’m going behind the net and out the other side huh?” pass.
3. David Pastrnak:Had many chances, some snarl, and scored the Bruin’s only goal on the night.
Big Save
A pass out of the corner and a point blank chance for Brad Marchand in the second should have been a goal, but Chad Johnson slides over and calmly gets his pad on it in classic butterfly form.
The Goat
Joe Morrow. If you’re going to assume the guy is coming around the other post you’d better find your man in front of the cage. Morrow did neither on the winning goal.
Mr. Clutch
Really enjoying the resurgence of Matt Stajan this year, unexpected but a great thing to happen to a great guy. Pulled in 15 minutes of ice time tonight, assisted on Sam Bennett’s goal, and would have had the third assist on the Chiasson goal because of a smart pass to Giordano in the neutral zone.
Odds and Ends
The Bruins out shot the Flames 36-29 on the night, when they were down 16-5 in shots early in the second period. Another wrinkle though was the fact that the Flames out shot the Bruins five on five by a 25-24 margin. … Was interesting to see Monahan do a little better in the underlying stats tonight as I noticed an improvement with the eye test as well. Had a scoring chance or two, some early chemistry with Ferland joining his line, but the thing I really noticed was his direct lines to the puck carrier tonight, a huge improvement. Less giving up the space, and more taking it away. Even finished a check or two. Good sign. … The Flames are likely without Johnny Gaudreau for another 10-12 games, so seeing Sam Bennett have his best game in weeks couldn’t have come at a better time. The Flames are expected to struggle offensively, something we’ve seen on this trip with 3-2, 2-0 and 2-1 wins but that could be a lot more bleak if the talented second year player goes into a funk. He’s a streaky scorer in his young history, maybe he’ll get on a bit of a bender now and help fill in the gaps for a month. … How good of a story is this Chad Johnson thing right now? Calgary kid that wants to play at home, in awe of putting on the jersey he coveted as a kid living in Deer Valley, and now taking the reigns of the net and leading the team, at least temporarily, out of doom and despair? Just love it. It’s a long season, and we haven’t seen the last of Brian Elliott but you have to give Brad Treliving credit for putting a pretty strong backup in place and not just resting on the laurels of a number one goalie acquisition. … Dougie Hamilton, as expected, was boo’d mercifully every single time he touched the puck tonight but honestly I don’t blame them. Far too often ex players are boo’d at for just being ex players, but in this case the guy wanted out, and then signed for roughly what he was offered in Boston. I get it. … The win moves the Flames back to two games under .500 which clearly isn’t something to get all that excited about. However with the West off to such a tepid start the team’s 21 points put them 2 points out of a wild card spot. More importantly though, they now have three teams that are further below .500 in the West so they are slowly climbing up. The big key however, is when things go bad again, which they will. They can’t have another four game losing streak before they find it again.
Next Up
Game five on the six game oddyssey goes Sunday night in Philadelphia, game time 5pm on Sportsnet.
Lines:
Ferland – Monahan – Brouwer
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Shinkaruk – Hamilton – Hathaway
Bennett – Stajan – Chiasson
Giordano – Hamilton
Brodie – Wideman
Kulak – Engelland
Johnson
