Post-Game: big third leads Flames over Devils

The Calgary Flames were a fairly sloppy hockey club through the first 40 minutes on Tuesday night. Then they erupted for a six goal third period, which lifted them to a 9-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

The home side opened the scoring five minutes into the game off a nice passing sequence. Elias Lindholm’s outlet pass from just inside the Flames blueline sprung Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau on a two-on-one rush. Gaudreau was given tons of time to tuck the puck between MacKenzie Blackwood’s pads to make it 1-0 Flames.

But the Devils tied up the game late in the period. TJ Brodie mishandled the puck at the offensive blueline, allowing Blake Coleman to jump on the loose puck and beat David Rittich on a breakaway to make it a 1-1 game.

The Devils took a lead into the intermission of a pretty rough clearing attempt by Mark Jankowski and a weird tip-in in front of Rittich. Jankowski tried to rim the puck around from the far corner to the opposite point. It was grabbed by Damon Severson and hucked at the net, where Kyle Palmieri tipped it with one hand on his stick between Rittich’s legs to make it 2-1 Devils.

Shots were 11-8 Flames and scoring chances were 11-6 Flames in the first 20 minutes.

Another defensive lapse early on led to another Devils marker. Mark Giordano and Brodie were incredibly far apart at the defensive blueline, which allowed Will Butcher to spring Kenny Agostino into their zone on a partial breakaway. He beat Rittich high blocker side to make it 3-1 Devils.

The Flames got one back, though, off a nice fourth line forechecking shift. Derek Ryan mucked around below the red line and was joined by Giordano, who found Sam Bennett wander into the slot with a stealthy back-handed pass that Bennett buried to make it a 3-2 hockey game.

The Flames tied things up a little while later as the first line joined the forecheck, with Monahan out-muscling a Devils defender and feeding Lindholm in the slot. Lindholm’s initial shot was stopped, but he buried the rebound to tie the game at 3-3.

The Flames got a late power play, but a broken stick and a lapse at the offensive blueline led to a two-on-one for the Devils. Coleman fed Travis Zajac and his wrist shot beat Rittich high blocker side – just inside the far corner of the net – to give the Devils a 4-3 advantage.

Shots were 12-11 Devils and scoring chances 10-7 Flames in the middle frame.

The game tilted entirely in the first 2:37 of the third period, as the Flames scored on each of their first three shots.

Shot #1 was an ugly chip-shot by Ryan that ramped up and over Blackwood and into the net to tie the game at 4-4.

Shot #2 was a penalty shot by Gaudreau after he was hauled down on a breakaway. That gave the home team a 5-4 edge.

Shot #3 was a beauty of a two-on-one opportunity, as Gaudreau fed Ryan for a tap-in to make it a 6-4 Flames lead.

Gaudreau completed his hat trick by taking a Monahan feed and calmly depositing it behind Blackwood to give the Flames a 7-4 lead midway through the third.

Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk added late goals to cement a 9-4 victory for the Flames.

The Flames were super sloppy defensive for the first two periods. They made life much tougher on themselves – and their goaltender – than they needed to. But they flipped the switch to open the third period and, as has become their manner, they overpowered a weaker team when the game was on the line.

It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t a complete effort, but it was good enough to get them a sorely-needed two points.

Gaudreau had six points, so let’s give it to him. He was all over the ice in the best way possible.

Gaudreau’s penalty shot goal gave the Flames the lead and completely sucked the life out of the visiting team.

Gaudreau’s six point evening was the most for any player in the NHL this season. It’s the first six point game since Mar. 20, 1994 and one point shy of Sergei Makarov’s team record from 1990. Four points in the third period tied a team record for most points in a single period.

His penalty shot goal was the team’s first since Matt Stajan scored against Edmonton on Mar. 22, 2014.

The Flames (43-20-7) are off tomorrow, then back in action on Friday night when they host the New York Rangers.