Calgary Flames Post-Game: Flames score once in loss to Chicago

The Calgary Flames headed to Chicago on Tuesday night to kick off a short, two game road trip. The Flames followed a familiar script from recent games: they had an iffy opening period, got behind on the scoreboard, and then couldn’t muster enough offence to overcome that obstacle.

The Flames lost to Chicago 3-1 to run their losing streak to four games.

Chicago generated a two-man advantage on the power play early in the first period off a pair of Flames minors to Daniil Miromanov and Mikael Backlund. The Flames killed off the five-on-three portion, but Seth Jones’ point shot on the second portion of Chicago’s five-on-four PP beat Jacob Markstrom to make it 1-0 Chicago.

A little later, the Blackhawks made it 2-0. The Flames were caught up ice and rookie Landon Slaggert sent two of his teammates into the Flames’ zone on a two-on-one. Jason Dickinson buried a feed from Philipp Kurashev to double Chicago’s lead.

First period shots were 15-5 Blackhawks (10-5 Blackhawks at five-on-five) and, via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 6-5 Blackhawks (high-dangers were 3-2 Blackhawks).

The Flames had a lot of zone time in the second period, including two power plays. They couldn’t score.

MacKenzie Weegar made a big save on Slaggert after the puck bounced past Markstrom as he tried to stick-handle it in his own crease – Markstrom chased after the puck and Weegar raced back to guard the net and ended up making a street hockey save with his shinpad.

Second period shots were 14-4 Flames (9-4 Flames at five-on-five) and five-on-five scoring chances were 12-2 Flames (high-dangers were 1-0 Flames).

Early in the third period, the Flames narrowly missed the Chicago net on a Jonathan Huberdeau deflection. Play went the other way and Joey Anderson, handling the puck below the Flames’ goal line, found Dickinson alone in the slot and he fired the puck past Markstrom for his second of the game to make it 3-0.

Oliver Kylington’s stick exploded on a point shot attempt, leading to a chaotic odd-man rush by Chicago. Dickinson turned down a chance at a hat trick to feed the puck to Slaggert, looking for his first NHL goal, but Slaggert’s shot hit the post and then was swatted out of the crease by Markstrom. (It was initially thought to be a goal, but reviewed and disallowed.)

Weegar spoiled Petr Mrazek’s shutout bid midway through the third period, with a point shot that beat Mrazek as Martin Pospisil was battling a defender out front. That made it 3-1 Chicago.

The Flames pressed for more, but couldn’t turn zone time and shots into more goals. Chicago held on for a 3-1 victory.

Third period shots were 22-8 Flames (17-8 Flames at five-on-five) and five-on-five scoring chances were 10-4 Flames (high-dangers were 3-2 Flames).

Two reasons. First, they were pretty rough in the opening 20 minutes, especially in their own end. Chicago had tons of time and space, and took advantage of it. Second, they didn’t do enough to get bodies in front of Petr Mrazek for screens and deflections. Mrazek faced 41 shots, yeah, and some were quite good chances. But how many did he see? Arguably too many.

Let’s give it to Weegar. He made a big save and scored the only Calgary goal.

The Flames weren’t very good in the first period, but their two second period power plays gave them two golden opportunities at erasing that frame from the record. They didn’t capitalize.

Matt Coronato and Nikita Okhotiuk rotated in for the Flames, replacing Dryden Hunt and Joey Hanley.

The Flames (33-33-5) are off to Missouri. They face the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

The Flames’ elimination number for the post-season is down to eight points; any combination of eight points earned by Vegas or potential points not earned by the Flames officially eliminate Calgary from playoff contention.