The Calgary Flames headed into Kanata, Ontario on Monday night looking to bounce back from a flat offensive effort against Toronto on Saturday. They weren’t shut out, but they couldn’t translate zone time into quality chances or, unfortunately, many goals. They skated to a 2-1 loss against the Ottawa Senators to crash back to the .500 mark more than halfway through the truncated 2020-21 season.

The rundown

The Senators opened the scoring in the first period. After the Flames pressed for awhile, Mark Giordano got caught pinching at the offensive blueline. That led to a two-on-one with Rasmus Andersson defending Clark Bishop and puck-carrier Ryan Dzingel. Dzingel used Bishop as a decoy and beat Jacob Markstrom high to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Shots were 13-12 Flames and scoring chances 8-4 Senators in the first period.
The Flames pressed in the second period, got some good looks, but just couldn’t bury anything past Filip Gustavsson.
Shots were 13-4 Flames and scoring chances 9-4 Flames in the second period.
The Flames pressed in the third period and just when it seemed like they’d get shut out, again, they didn’t. Milan Lucic sprang Johnny Gaudreau into the offensive zone with a nice outlet pass and Gaudreau beat Gustavsson to tie the game at 1-1.
But a few minutes later, Chris Tierney jammed in a rebound off a point shot by Mike Reilly to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead. That’s how the game ended.
Shots were 10-7 Flames and scoring chances 6-6 in the third period.

Why the Flames lost

Well, they had defensive lapses that Ottawa jumped all over. And while they peppered Ottawa’s net with shots, the disconnect between the quality and quantity of their scoring chances was pretty stark. Gustavsson saw a lot of the shots and his defenders did a nice job minimizing second chances.

Red Warrior

Gaudreau had the lone goal, so let’s go with him.

The turning point

Tierney’s go-ahead goal, just 2:30 after the Flames pulled even, was a back-breaker.

The numbers

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.
Corsi
For%
O-Zone
Face-Off%
Game
Score
Tkachuk
74.1
72.7
0.680
Lindholm
69.0
80.0
-0.190
Tanev
68.8
78.6
0.770
Hanifin
68.4
78.6
1.370
Valimaki
67.9
100
1.770
Nesterov
66.7
100
1.950
Dube
65.6
72.7
0.490
Mangiapane
60.7
60.0
-0.310
Backlund
58.6
60.0
0.460
Bennett
55.6
81.8
-0.440
Lucic
54.8
60.0
0.980
Leivo
54.6
83.3
0.280
Ryan
53.3
83.3
0.200
Monahan
52.6
75.0
0.050
Gaudreau
52.4
81.8
0.780
Andersson
45.5
61.5
-1.880
Giordano
42.9
61.5
-1.810
Rinaldo
42.9
83.3
-0.140
Markstrom
—
—
-0.250
Rittich
—
—
—

This and that

This was Gustavsson’s first NHL win. There were some disappointing “keep away” actions by Rasmus Andersson at the final buzzer:

Up next

The Flames (15-15-3) are back in action on Wednesday afternoon when they face the Ottawa Senators. It’s a 3 p.m. MT start!