Post-Game: Back-to-Back Wins!

Tonight’s game had all the marks of a tough one for the Calgary Flames.

Detroit were rested, while Calgary had played the evening before and didn’t get into the Motor City until 2am local time. The Flames had lost David Jones, who had been a key part of their tough-minutes tandem with Lance Bouma and Mikael Backlund, and both Matt Stajan and goalie Jonas Hiller were playing their first games in awhile.

But because this is the 2014-15 edition of the Calgary Flames and this year has been strange fairly consistently, the Flames roared back from a 2-0 first period deficit with five unanswered goals and beat the Red Wings 5-2 at Joe Louis Arena.

They are now 36-25-4 on the season with 17 games remaining.

The game got off to a poor start. Detroit scored two goals in the first half of the first period, both from the stick of Justin Abdelkader, though one was a power-play goal. Did you know Detroit has the NHL’s best PP? Wanna bet Calgary figured that out pretty quickly? The Flames answered back with a power-play goal of their own at the half-way mark, with Sean Monahan netting his 24th of the season off a beautiful display of patience in the slot – waiting out both Jimmy Howard and two Wings defenders. Shots were 14-7 for the Wings in the first frame.

The Flames came out better in the second period, battling a bit tighter and taking advantage of a rather iffy performance by Jimmy Howard on the night. Six minutes into the period, Matt Stajan jumped on a big bounce a puck took after a Flames dump-in and sniped it past Howard to tie the game. Several minutes later, Hudler displayed his patience, waiting out a defender and then sniping a shot past a confused Howard to give Calgary the lead. Shots were once again tilted towards the home side, this time by a 15-8 rate.

Calgary came into the third in an unfamiliar spot – defending a one-goal lead on the road. Some nice board-work by Drew Shore allowed him to feed Mason Raymond for a nice shot that Howard wasn’t able to glove completely, giving Calgary a 4-2 lead. Jiri Hudler added an empty netter late and the Flames, despite playing their second game in as many nights on the road, recorded their second win in as many nights. The Flames out-shot Detroit 9-6 in the third period.

Let’s not mince words – Jimmy Howard wasn’t great tonight. However, the Flames once again took what they were given. The power play scored. Outside of the first period, goaltending was excellent. They only allowed a single goal to the NHL’s best power-play. They out-shot an opponent in the third period while trying to hold onto a lead.

All-in-all, they may have been out-shot, but they did their best to stay in this game.

Matt Stajan had a kid a few days ago and then scored the game-winning goal tonight, in his first game since February 20.

Honourable mentions to Jonas Hiller and the black and blue Kris Russell, who continues to be the back end’s heart and soul.

Against all odds, the Calgary Flames are now guaranteed to come back from their own personal Death Tour with a winning record, having gone 4-2-0 thus far (with wins against New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit). They’re off tomorrow before completing their Brier road trip on Sunday evening against the Ottawa Senators.

They require nine more victories to secure a playoff spot with 17 games remaining.