Calgary Flames Post-Game: Flames lose to powerhouse Bruins in overtime

The Calgary Flames hosted the league-leading Boston Bruins at the Saddledome on Tuesday night. The Flames got down 2-0 after the first period, but they just kept doing their thing and playing their game.

In a really entertaining game that saw the Flames put up over 50 shots on Linus Ullmark, the Flames lost to the Bruins by a 4-3 score in overtime.

The Flames got off to a good start but, once again, they allowed a goal on the first shot their goaltender faced. (Here we go again!) This time, Dmitry Orlov wandered into the high slot in the Flames zone unobstructed and fired a shot that Dan Vladar saw the whole way. The shot beat Vladar to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

The Bruins made it 2-0 a little while later. The Bruins won a face-off and threw the puck to the slot area, where Orlov (again) had time to fire a shot past Vladar. Again, Vladar had a clear view, but Orlov just beat him off a face-off play.

Jacob Markstrom replaced Vladar in net for the second period. Vladar allowed two goals on five shots.

The Flames kept pressing and eventually they got on the board early in the second period. A loose puck nearly trickled out of the Boston zone at the point, but Rasmus Andersson hustled and kept the puck in. He pinched down to the face-off dot and flung a pass to Blake Coleman in the slot. Coleman’s wrister beat Linus Ullmark to cut Boston’s lead to 2-1.

Midway through the third period, the Flames drew even on their 44th shot of the game. The Bruins defended a zone entry by Tyler Toffoli well, but Toffoli got a nice pass through a seam in their coverage, sending Dillon Dube in on Ullmark all by his lonesome. Dube fired a wrister past Ullmark glove-side to tie the game up at 2-2.

Just 1:17 later, the Flames took the lead. The Flames dumped the puck into the Bruins zone, with Jakob Pelletier fore-checking in on Connor Clifton. Pelletier blocked Clifton’s attempted pass up the wall, and that led to chaos, confusion, and a passing sequence that ended up a Jonathan Huberdeau pass going into the Boston net off a Bruins skate to give the Flames a 3-2 lead.

 

But the Bruins tied things up late in the third period on a power play. Nikita Zadorov stepped into Jake DeBrusk just inside the Flames’ blueline, but also wiped out Andrew Mangiapane in the process. Boston kept the puck, and in all the confusion Orlov found Pavel Zacha in front of the net for a quick pass and a tap-in past Markstrom to tie the game up at 3-3.

Both teams had their chances in overtime, but Charlie McAvoy buried a Patrice Bergeron pass off a bit of defensive confusion in the Flames’ zone – two guys were trying to cover Brad Marchand below the goal line – and that gave the Bruins a 4-3 overtime victory.

The Flames faced a Bruins team that was playing their second game in as many nights. And the Flames made the Bruins work for this game. The Flames really rose their game and played well in almost every aspect of this contest. (If you want to nitpick, their power play could’ve been a bit more urgent.)

Replace Ullmark with a lesser goaltender, and the Flames win this one by a country mile. But the Flames couldn’t bury their chances and they made just enough miscues (between their defensive play and their netminders) to give the Bruins a victory.

A lot of men in black had good evenings. If we have to single somebody out, let’s go with Mikael Backlund. Backlund played a ton, generated scoring chances, won face-offs, and was generally just reliable all evening long.

The Flames played well enough to win this game. But Zadorov’s unruly hit on DeBrusk was the wrong move at the wrong time, and allowed the Bruins to tie things up in a game where, again, the Flames deserved a better fate.

Coleman’s goal was the 100th of his NHL career.

Actor Jon Hamm was in attendance for this game. You may remember him from the film adaptation of the game of tag, from those great Skip The Dishes commercials, and the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men.

The Flames wore special warm-up jerseys, honouring some guy named Jarome Iginla, to commemorate Black History Month.

The Flames (27-21-13) are back at it on Thursday night when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs.