Calgary Flames Post-Game: Flames edge Rangers in overtime battle

The Calgary Flames got out to a really good start on Saturday night when they hosted the New York Rangers. But the Rangers battled back and forced overtime, only for the Flames to pick up the extra point in dramatic fashion.

The Flames beat the Rangers by a 3-2 score in overtime.

The Flames came out of the gates strong and scored twice before the first minute of the opening period had elapsed.

38 seconds in, Mikael Backlund sprung Andrew Mangiapane into the Rangers’ zone on a partial breakaway. K’Andre Miller hooked Mangiapane and the referee was about to call a penalty, but Mangiapane made a nice move and put the puck past Jaroslav Halak to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

Off the following face-off, the Rangers won the draw but the Flames’ forecheck caused a turnover. Jakob Pelletier passed to Jonathan Huberdeau, and Huberdeau fed Nazem Kadri at the top of the circles for a shot that beat Halak to make it 2-0 Flames. (The two goals were scored just eight seconds apart.)

The Rangers managed to claw into the Flames’ lead late in the second period. A little bit after a Flames’ icing, the Rangers hit their zone with numbers. A couple nice passes caught the Flames standing still a bit, and that allowed Vincent Trocheck to send a pass across the slot to Vladimir Tarasenko, to Jacob Markstrom’s left, and Tarasenko buried the feed into the open net to cut the Calgary lead to 2-1.

The Rangers kept pressing and evened things up midway through the third period. Kadri took an interference minor and the Flames managed to kill off most of the penalty. But with three seconds left on the Kadri minor, Alexis Lafreniere fired a puck on net that trickled off Markstrom and onto the goal line. It looked like it trickled over the line, but Lafreniere poked it again anyway to definitively beat Markstrom and tie the game at 2-2.

Dillon Dube got clipped by an Adam Fox high stick in overtime (after Tyler Toffoli battled with a couple Rangers in the corner). On the resulting power play, Mikael Backlund tipped a Huberdeau shot past Halak to give the Flames a 3-2 overtime win.

The Flames were really good early, and then they seemed to settle into defending their lead, only occasionally going at the Rangers with the same urgency and ferocity as they did early in the game. But they weren’t bad, it’s just that the Rangers upped their game.

Halak and Markstrom were both quite good, and really this game was decided by the Flames being able to execute well on their overtime power play. This was a game either team could have won, but the Flames were deserving victors.

Markstrom was needing a bounce-back performance, and he delivered one. As the Rangers pressed in the back half of the game, the Flames’ netminder gave them what they needed when the game was up for grabs.

Obviously, Backlund’s overtime winner.

Elias Lindholm was not in the lineup for the Flames, as he and his wife await the birth of their first child. In his absence, Adam Ruzicka slotted into the lineup.

Two goals scored eight seconds apart is four seconds off the club record for fastest pair of goals, but it’s the fastest two goals the club has scored in a game since January 10, 1992.

The Flames are now 23-1-4 when leading after two periods.

The Flames (26-19-11) finish off their brief three-game home stand on Monday afternoon with a matinee visit from the Philadelphia Flyers.