Flames remain perfect in the Ward Era with win over the Leafs
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoThe Calgary Flames gave up the first goal on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They trailed after two periods. They were out-shot and out-chanced. But they still managed a 4-2 home ice victory.
Following the game, interim head coach Geoff Ward – now a spotless 7-0-0 as a bench boss – commented on the victory:
“Our team has been pretty resilient now for probably the last three hockey games and tonight was no different. I think the added bonus for us tonight was being down early in the third, they put a good push on at the beginning of the third and we were able to get them back on their heels and score a couple of goals.”
The Flames have won every game under Ward and are 8-0-1 in their past nine games, a departure from the preceding six game losing skid. It’s their longest winning streak since a seven game streak last season (which followed four straight losses).
In the midst of some chaos, between the losing skid and the tumultuous departure of Bill Peters, Ward praised his team for working as a unit.
“I’m most proud of how the guys have come together,” said Ward. “They stick up for each other, they play for one another, and we’re really starting to see a nice synergy in our team, and right now I’m happy for the guys. I’m proud of the way they’re sticking to it, sticking together.”
Geoff Ward, line whisperer
Via colleague Darren Haynes, here’s Michael Frolik on the team’s recent successes:
Forward five-on-five ice time, at a glance:
- Johnny Gaudreau (14:37), Sean Monahan (14:13) and Mikael Backlund (13:39)
- Andrew Mangiapane (14:16), Elias Lindholm (14:03) and Matthew Tkachuk (13:25)
- Derek Ryan (12:21), Milan Lucic (12:19) and Dillon Dube (11:01)
- Mark Jankowski (9:28), Michael Frolik (9:13) and Tobias Rieder (9:07)
The deployments were a tad more top-heavy than on the road trip, but Ward managed to get the Jankowski line a bit more offensive zone time than they did on the road (so there’s a trade-off). But he leaned on the players that were cooking and managed to get two points of them, like good coaches are supposed to be able to do.
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
