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Flames can’t score on power plays, win anyway
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
Jan 8, 2020, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 8, 2020, 00:48 EST
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The Calgary Flames have a habit of “winning ugly” this season. They allowed the first goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night (yet again), but they managed to rally back to win.
Life could’ve been easier for the Flames. They had oodles of power play chances. Heck, they had two fairly lengthy five-on-threes:
  • At 10:52 of the second, Chicago took a too many men penalty. Then at 11:47, Zack Smith was called for high sticking.
  • At 2:08 of the third, Erik Gustafsson was called for tripping. At 2:51, Smith was called for slashing.
2:22 of five on three power play time resulted in just four shots and zero goals. 3:16 of five on four power play time resulted in a single shot and zero goals. They generated just two high danger scoring chances on their PPs.
The main culprit? Bad face-off performances in the clutch: the Flames won three of eight draws a man (or two) up, with Sean Monahan winning all three. Derek Ryan, Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund were a combined 0-for-4 on PP draws.

A landmark night for Elias Lindholm

His PP performance wasn’t anything to write home about, but young Lindholm had himself a game. Playing in his 500th NHL game with his father in attendance, Lindholm scored the game-tying and game-winning goals. The markers represented his 299th and 300th career points.
In 126 games with the Flames, Lindholm has 45 goals and 112 points. He currently leads the team in goal-scoring. There’s a lot of talk about the underachieving nature of the 2019-20 Flames, but Lindholm is doing anything but that.

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