The Calgary Flames beat the Florida Panthers in a shootout by a 6-5 score on Thursday night. Here are selected reactions from after the game.

The Flames were the better team for much of this game, playing with the lead or tied for much of the evening. While Flames head coach Bill Peters was pleased with the club’s overall game, he wasn’t terribly happy with how they reacted to Florida’s third period push.

“I thought we were in control there in the third,” said Peters. “I thought we had a good power play. I think it was 3-2. We had a good power play. We had some zone time. Gio made it 4-2, so I thought we were in a good spot. They pushed, we didn’t handle it very well. Our coverage broke down a little bit. Huge goal by Benny to get us into overtime and the shootout.”

While he declined to go into more detail about why Florida was able to get back into things, when answering a different question later in his media conference he provided a bit of insight in term of why he was so dissatisfied with the team’s play with a 4-2 lead:

“From that point on you’ve got to manage the puck properly and have good situational awareness.”

The Flames allowed one shot on two penalty kills – they had that many playing shorthanded. They scored on one of their three power plays and their third period advantage did everything but score. Peters thought their man advantage group was very dangerous, particularly in the third period, while Matthew Tkachuk felt they helped tilt the game.

“It’s not good when it doesn’t go in, but we were all over them,” said Tkachuk. “I thought we created momentum, which is a good thing. Even though one didn’t go in, I thought we created momentum.”

David Rittich had a weird game. He gave up five goals. He took a puck off the mask early in the third period, had Keith Yandle land on him in the crease, and even toppled over in the second period while playing a loose puck.

“It wasn’t really nice game, but I’m glad we got two points.”

The next Flames home date isn’t until Nov. 5. In the interim, they hit the road for five games; they’ll visit such scenic destinations as Regina, Raleigh, Nashville, Columbus, and Washington, D.C.