Baby Flames Weekend Recap

It’s the all-star break in NHL land and the fantasy draft was way, way more enjoyable than I think anyone was expecting. Probably because seemingly every single player (and one Russian even moreso) was life-chat drunk throughout the event. Also, the hosts seemed determined to suck the fun entirely out of the room the entire time. Good fun! 

Anywho, here’s a quick summary of how the Adirondack Flames did over the weekend in a pair of games against the Rochester Americans. 

Friday’s game was on the road in Rochester and saw former U-Mass Lowell standout Doug Carr making his debut between the pipes  this season for the Flames. Carr played two games last year for heat in Abbotsford and finished with a .925 SV% in that micro sample size. 

On Friday, Carr gave up three goals on 32 shots with only one of the Rochester goals looking kinda suspect. Carr was giving Brad Thiessen a night off and even though Joni Ortio had already been reassigned to the AHL, he did not play on Friday. Here is a stalker-ish video of Carr during his time at UML, just to give you an idea of what he looks like in net:

As you can see in the highlights, David Wolf, who would become the story of the home-and-home set with Rochester. scored a pretty nice goal on the power-play with the assists going to Poirier and everyone’s favourite PP specialist, Brian McGrattan. Wolf does an excellent job using his size to bring the puck to the front of the net and showed some nice hands to put the thing in as well. 

Not featured in that highlight package was a goal from Max Reinhart who had actually tied the game at two with only nine seconds to go in the second period. Corey Potter and Ryan Culkin drew the assists on that goal. The third Rochester goal was a bit of a heartbreaker for the baby Flames, as it came with less than five minutes to go in the third period. 

This game also marked the first game for Drew Shore in Adirondack silks. Shore was even with two shots and a minor penalty. Here’s the game sheet of Addy’s players, even though there doesn’t seem to be a way to get any more info (e.g TOI) than this:

Saturday night’s game was back at home for Adirondack and things went a lot smoother. Some familiar faces returned to the lineup, with Joni Ortio back in net and Markus Granlund playing his first action since his assignment. Both would factor into Saturday night’s action. Oh, and Tyler Wotherspoon also played after his slightly bizarre one-game callup then benching. 

The first goal of the night for the Flames would be off the stick of Kennebunckport’s favourite son, Garnet Hathaway, deflecting a point shot from Corey Potter on a powerplay late in the second period. The Flames would strike again quickly with David Wolf roofing a shot with less than a minute to go in the second. This was a pretty nice shot from Wolf and showed some pretty nice finish from the 6’3, 216 pounder. That goal was Wolf’s 11th of the season. 

Markus Granlund put the Flames up 3-0 after a pretty nice play from Corey Potter, scoring his fourth of the season. It is nice to see Granlund scoring when given the opportunity in the AHL, I think Flames fans would hope that he can get some of his scoring touch back as he has only scored once in his last 15 games with the big club. 

After Jerry D’Amigo drew the Americans back within two, David Wolf put the Flames back up by three as he converted on some pretty passing from Granlund and Poirier. By the way, did you spot Matt Pelech in the box for the Americans in that highlight pack? Does that name ring a bell? No? Good! Anyway, read this tweet about how good Joni Ortio was from Joe Yerdon:

Good! Concise! Very well. The Flames won 4-1 and Ortio made 35 saves on 36 shots while looking very good. Here is the game sheet from Saturday’s game, note that David Wolf led all skaters with five shots, while Sven Baertschi and Brian McGrattan each had four shots a piece. Just two offensive dynamos honing their craft:

While a lot of attention is being paid to Emile Poirier in Adirondack (and with good reason) this was a pretty nice stretch of games for David Wolf who showed some finish this weekend. When Wolf was signed this summer, there was a lot of talk about his size and some optimism that he may have some offensive abilities to go with his frame. 

So far this season, it seems as though Wolf was still getting accustomed to the game in North America but is starting to get hot for Adirondack over the past six or seven games. If Wolf keeps this up, he may earn himself a look with Calgary’s bottom-six at some point this season as the Flames continue to transition away from enforcers and into functionally tough bottom-sixers. Well, functionally tough bottom-sixers and Brandon Bollig. 

The baby Flames aren’t back in action until Jan. 31 when they play at home again against Rochester.. again.