Playoff Post-Game: Wasted Chances

The Calgary Flames moseyed into Vancouver this evening, hoping for a victory over the Canucks and to propel themselves into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Flames, that opportunity was wasted as the Canucks played their third straight strong game at Rogers Arena and eked out a narrow 2-1 victory over the Flames. It was narrow on the scoreboard, but the Canucks carried the play for the majority of the contest and if not for some really strong goaltending from Jonas Hiller, the game could’ve been much more one-sided.

Game 6 goes Saturday night in Calgary.

The Flames opened the scoring early, with Matt Stajan’s forecheck creating a turnover, allowing him to set up David Jones for a goal to make it 1-0. The Canucks poured it on, though, and the Flames were lucky to get through the period up a goal. Shots were 17-8 for Vancouver.

The Canucks continued to pile on the chances in the second. The Flames nearly made it through the period unscathed, but a lapse in coverage allowed Nick Bonino to unleash a hard shot that beat Jonas Hiller and tie the game at 1-1. Shots were 17-8, again, for Vancouver.

After a few games being relatively quiet, the Sedins connected early in the third. Daniel Sedin beat Jonas Hiller after a rapid-fire start to the third period by the Canucks. The Flames came back and tried to get stuff going, but they just could not get pucks to the net in the necessary amount. Shots were 9-5 Vancouver in the third.

They got out-shot by a metric ton. They got out-chanced by nearly that amount, too. The game could’ve been a lot worse if not for Jonas Hiller being as sharp as he was.

When Vancouver has last change, they can use that to make a team’s life miserable in terms of match-ups. That’s what they did tonight.

Jonas Hiller made 41 saves. He’s your man. And also give a stick-tap to Mikael Backlund, who led the Flames with six shots on net.

The Flames had a chance to advance tonight. They did not do so.

They have a second chance to advance at home on Saturday night in the form of Game 6. Let’s hope we see a better sixty minutes of hockey out of them.