The road recipe has never ever contained a clause where giving up three goals and a 3-1 lead in the first period is the way to play it away from home.
It pretty much never ends up favourable.
The Flames flipped that deficit on its ear this afternoon though, turning said 3-1 hole into a come from behind 5-4 overtime victory on the strength of Sean Monahan’s first career hat trick to help wipe some of the sour taste from Detroit and even their six game road trip at 1-1-0.
Native son Johnny Gaudreau was also very noticeable in picking up a goal and two assists as well.
Old Foes
The Flames face off against former goaltender Brian Elliott for the first time in Flyer colours this afternoon, and in the end added to his somewhat average stats, pumping five past him on 31 shots (.839 save percentage).
Elliott got off to a nasty start for the Flyers, just as he did in Calgary last season, but had righted the ship of late with his lasdt 5 games having averaged north of .950 in terms of performance. Good guy, hope this doesn’t rattle him.
Top Line
Man is this line rolling, and I mean rolling. Another eight points between them tonight as Monahan continues to score goals, Gaudreau continues to set them up, and Micheal Ferland continues to play Clark Gillies to their Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy.
Gaudreau is a much more confident animal this season, which could come from many reasons. Media and fans like to pinpoint but chances are its cocktail of factors including; no contract hassle, not missing training camp, a year of maturity, and I think to some degree the clamp down on slashes allowing him to move the puck to the slot with less fear of getting whacked.
Sean Monahan has always been a slow starter so to see him out with 11 goals in just 19 games is something to see. Would love to see the guy hit 40 this season, a real line in the sand in the modern NHL between good and great goal scorers.
Mike Smith
The stats haven’t gone Mike Smith’s way in the last ten days, but man does this guy battle shift to shift and shot to shot. The Flyers got two past him in the second in almost identical fashion; floaters from the point through traffic finding holes. In other words he had no chance.
But with the game back in the balance he was money in getting an extended pad, a protruded blocker, he just never quits on a puck giving the Flames a chance to right themselves and get back into the game.
Gamer.
Powerplay
The Flames special teams have been a complete waste land of late as both the penalty kill and powerplay have found themselves free-falling down the list towards the bottom of the league.
Tonight the penalty kill was able to kill two of three Blues chances which ordinarily wouldn’t be a cause for celebration, but a look at recent games suggests anything north of 50% is victory in itself.
The powerplay however was Monahan fueld dominant going three for five on the night and essentially pulling this game out for the Flames. Heading into overtime the offence was a hat trick of Monahan powerplay goals and a Gaudreau break away before Michael Frolik found the net in the extra session.
Philly Ice
The Sixers played later in the day in the same arena, but given the way the puck was bouncing around you’d swear it was the other way around.
Saddledome ice hasn’t been great of late, certainly not what it was when the building first opened, but the puck was bouncing so badly tonight it became a factor in the game. It’s funny when players struggle them seem to find those ugly bounces and that was the case with TJ Brodie who followed up his rough night in Detroit with a lot of bouncing puck bobbles in Philadelphia.
Fancy Stats
Five on five the Flyers definitely had the better of the play with a 56% split in five on five shot attempts. Ironically they got worked in the first period with only 39%, despite escaping with a 3-1 lead. Call me bewildered when Cassie Campbell went on and on about how poor the Flames were in the first period and how the Detroit game seemed to carry over. The Flames were great in the first with two fluke goals against.
The scoring chances were 11-9 for the Flames (55%) including a 5-3 margin in the first period, a pretty solid road effort and a bounce back from the Detroit Debacle.
Individually the top line were all 70% or better five on five which says something since three of the four goals the line put up came on the powerplay. The top pairing, Micheal Frolik and Mikael Backlund also did their thang, as expected. The fourth line just got worked by the Flyers tonight at roughly 12.5% five on five corsi attempts, which made it pretty bizarre that Gulutzan put them on the ice with less than three minutes to play in a 4-4 game. The Stajan penalty made it all the more aggravating.
What Does It Mean?
The win moves the Flames back to three games over .500 and into the third playoff spot in their division, a point back of the Nights, though Vegas (that still seems weird) has a game in hand. The Oilers loss in Dallas has them six points behind the Flames with the Flames having a game in hand. Oh and Edmonton, did you know that American Thanksgiving is on Thursday? Turkeys!
The Flames recent goal run has moved them to the middle of the pack from 30th just two short weeks ago. Five more tonight gives them a goal per game average of 2.95, good for 15th overall. Now just to keep them out!
