Flames did several things well on Friday’s game-winning goal

The Calgary Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers by a 5-1 score on Friday night. The game-winning goal by Matthew Tkachuk in the first period was a product of some savvy plays by both Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane.

Let’s break it down.

Via the Flames, here’s the video of Mangiapane’s drive, pause, and pass.

There are three big decisions that made this sequence happen.

Mangiapane is guarding the left point when the puck bloops past Darnell Nurse inside the offensive blueline. The puck trickles into the neutral zone as Mangiapane gains speed and realizes he can probably beat out Nurse for the loose puck. (After this shot, he makes a move around Nurse to go for the puck.)

At the bottom of the screen, Tkachuk recognizes the play developing and wanders into the neutral zone. Ethan Bear is focused on the puck battle at the side of the zone, likely concerned that if Mangiapane blows past Nurse he’ll need to scramble back to break up a scoring chance.

A few seconds later, Mangiapane has gotten around Nurse and gotten the puck. He’s trying to find a lane to the net, but the combination of Nurse’s size and speed make it challenging. Bear, concerned that Mangiapane might beat out Nurse for the inside lane, cheats towards the middle of the zone. Tkachuk, recognizing that Bear has cheated over, hangs back a bit to let the play develop and give Mangiapane a pass option.

Mangiapane wasn’t successful in fully driving to the net, but by this point Nurse is too deep to really do anything but block the path to the net. However, Bear has over-committed to backing up Nurse – there’s no value in Bear being beside Nurse when Nurse has already blocked the (bad angle) shooting lane.

Tkachuk, though, has seen his “hang back and let things develop” strategy bear fruit. Bear has seemingly forgotten all about Calgary’s leading scorer and now he has a clear lane to the net. Whoops. Mangiapane’s pass goes through Bear’s legs and stick and Tkachuk buries it to give the Flames a 2-0 lead.

Chatting with the media at Winsport after Saturday’s practice, Mangiapane broke down his perspective of the goal:

There was no big moment that swung the game for the Flames, but as this goal sequence exemplifies, there were several smaller moments where they made smart plays and they snowballed.