Game Takes: Flames 5 Wild 4

January 26th, 2025 | Posted in Game Takes | By: D'Arcy McGrath

For 45 minutes the Flames were teaching the world how to play road hockey.

They were cruising up 3-1 and 4-1 in the third period, and were giving up literally nothing.

Then it got weird.

The two teams combined for five third period goals turning a laugher into an interesting finish in a 5-4 Flames win in Minnesota on Saturday night.

The Flames got two goals from Andrei Kuzmenko, and two assists nights from Yegor Sharangovich and Mackenzie Weegar to pace the squad.

Right back at it tonight with a game in Winnipeg commencing 22 hours after this one finished.

The Lineup

A come from behind win over Buffalo fueled by a promotion mid game seems to have leaked into the roster for tonight’s game as well.

Jakob Pelletier was the best skater on the ice and produced when promoted mid game to the Huberdeau / Kadri line, and has earned another twirl with the veteran pair. Kevin Rooney back into the lineup, and Rory Kerins sitting for the first time since his recall. All in all a change to three of the four lines.

So some revamped forwards lines as follows; Nazem Kadri between Jonathan Huberdeau and Jakob Pelletier, Mikael Backlund back with Blake Coleman and Matt Coronato (the one line unchanged). A third line with Yegor Sharangovich at center between Ryan Lomberg and Martin Pospisil, and a fourth line of Kevin Rooney between Clark Bishop and Andrei Kuzmenko.

On the blueline one small change, Jake Bean coming out for Joel Hanley. Rasmus Andersson and Kevin Bahl, Mackenzie Weegar with Daniil Miromanov and Hanley with Brayden Pachal on the third pairing.

Back to back games this weekend, so we should see both goaltenders … but Dustin Wolf gets his fourth straight start tonight.

Pre Game Stats Dive

Tonight we look at face off deployment for the Calgary Flames.

I won’t dig into prowess, as the Flames have none! They only have one skater with 50 or more face offs that has a win rate above 50% and that’s Blake Coleman.

All their centers are well under water.

But who takes the draws where?

Player Even PP PK
Nazem Kadri 30% 38% 4%
Mikael Backlund 29% 28% 72%
Kevin Rooney 8% 2% 8%
Connor Zary 8% 13% 0%
Yegor Sharangovich 7% 13% 4%
Martin Pospisil 6% 0% 0%
Rest of Team 11% 6% 11%

At even strength the duties are split pretty evenly between Nazem Kadri and Mikael Backlund. Kadri gets more powerplay face offs, and Mikael Backlund is the “man” when it comes to taking draws shorthanded.

When you look at splits by zone you see the following …

Player OZ NZ DZ
Nazem Kadri 35% 29% 21%
Mikael Backlund 22% 27% 47%
Connor Zary 10% 11% 3%
Yegor Sharangovich 10% 8% 4%
Martin Pospisil 7% 6% 3%
Kevin Rooney 4% 8% 12%
Rest of Team 12% 11% 10%

Kadri taking more offensive zone draws, and Backlund taking almost half of the defensive zone face offs; neither a surprise.

Wrangler’s Watch

How have the Calgary Wranglers managed to win four of their last five games.

The team is missing most of their offence, and their starting goalie over the past few weeks.

Nine Wranglers have posted a points per game of 0.8 or better this season; only four of them are still with the team (Hunt, Stromgren, Frk and Klapka).

Two of their top three overall scorers are with the Flames. And don’t forget their head coach was called up as well.

Quite the story.

Wolf’s Start

A tale of two games for Dustin Wolf’s start in Minnesota.

The Flames were rock solid in front of him through 45 minutes of hockey, giving the Wild very little by way of shots on goal or chances. In fact through two periods the Wild only had 0.87 in expected goals in all situations and sat at 1 on the board.

Then the final 15 minutes saw the push from the homeside with the Wild racking up a third period expected total of 1.44 expected goals in the last chunk of the third period.

Not sure Wolf had much of a chance on any of them to be honest, but his total is four against vs 2.31 expected.

Don’t usually see him on the wrong side of that metric!

Odds and Sods

Just love seeing those old Minnesota Northstar jerseys. Looks a lot like games 1 and 2 from the Corral in the third round of the 1981 playoffs. Yes I’m old. … And I wonder how that works. Those jerseys belong to the Dallas Stars technically, I wonder if the Wild had to buy the rights? Or do they stay with the city? … Who is this Kuznetsov fellow wearing 96? (Jon Abbott called Kuzmenko, Kuzmentzov three times in the first before he heard Greg Millen correctly) … Scary hit on Kevin Bahl by Lauko. I don’t think he was thinking “get him from behind” when he followed in his dump, but you have to wrap the guy up and carry him into the glass, you can’t shove him. Surprised it was only two minutes. … I’m not one for a clean hit has to be answered with a scrap, but a dirty one sure can and we saw that from Ryan Lomberg. And he looked mad! … Ironic that the Flames too the Wild to school in the face off dot after my summary above (suggesting digging into prowess is pointless). Flames 61.9% in the dots on the night. … Good to see Andrei Kuzmenko score twice in a game in this lost season. I always had him for a streak to get himself to 20 again this year. Still possible with doubling his output in one game, but improbable. … Some solid plays by Yegor Sharangovich to set up Calgary goals (he finished with two apples). Both good in traffic, and good with his hands. We haven’t seen that player much this year. … Calgary was sputtering in the third period despite being up with the loss of Bahl for 2/3 of the game. Too much pressure on the top three with one of the horses gone. Huge issue for this team in the coming weeks if he’s out a while with a concussion or shoulder injury. … The win puts the Flames three points up on the Vancouver Canucks with a game in hand. This unlikely is starting to become somewhat possible. Not going to use that probable word yet. … The gap between the Panthers and Flames is now down to two draft positions. I never had that on the season bingo card. Crazy year.

Fancy Stats

The Flames posted a masterclass on “how to win on the road” through 20 minutes giving up literally nothing. Calgary was up 6-3 in high danger chances through 40 minutes and owned 2/3 of the shot attempts and expected goals. Things evened out a bit in the third. The Flames, five on five, had 53% (55%/59%/50%) of the shot attempts, 46% of the high danger chances, and 48% of the expected goals. In all situations they had 54 of the shot attempts, 44% of the high danger chances and 54% of the expected goals.

Individually, the Flames were led by Daniil Miromanov posting an xGF% of 75% on the night. Kevin Rooney and Mackenzie Weegar were in the 60s. Five other players were above water; Jonathan Huberdeau, Blake Coleman, Jakob Pelletier, Nazem Kadri, and Matt Coronato. Four players were under 40%; Martin Pospisil, Brayden Pachal, Clark Bishop and Yegor Sharangovich.



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