Post-Game: Dome Sweet Dome

The Calgary Flames probably wanted a mulligan after their 3-0 setback in Edmonton on Wednesday night. For the first 30 minutes of their home-opener, they probably wanted a mulligan after spotting the Winnipeg Jets a 3-1 lead. But the Flames managed to claw back and finished with five unanswered goals en route to an impressive 6-3 victory before a capacity crowd at the Saddledome.

Mike Smith was the best guy wearing red in the first period, but it still wasn’t quite enough. He bailed out his defenders on an early two-on-one break – caused by Matt Bartkowski over-committing on an attempted hit – and robbed Shawn Matthias. The Jets opened the scoring with a short-handed goal as Brandon Tanev intercepted a Kris Versteeg pass at the Jets blueline and then out-raced Versteeg and managed to chip the puck over Smith to make it 1-0. The home side tied it up at 1-1 with a nice T.J. Brodie slapper through traffic – just a shift after Brodie shot the puck over the glass after making a heroic dive to hold it in the Jets zone with his stick. Winnipeg struck back twice before the period ended, though: once with a Mark Scheifele one-timer from the slot on a power play to make it 2-1, then again when a Mathieu Perreault shot rang the iron and bounced right to Patrik Laine for a no-doubt one-timer to make it 3-1.  Shots were 15-11 Flames, scoring chances were 9-7 Jets.

The Flames were flat for the first six or seven minutes of the second, but a big kill of a Mark Giordano interference penalty led to some life and then some offense. Right after the kill, Johnny Gaudreau fed Curtis Lazar on a two-on-one and Steve Mason made an epic save – swatting the opportunity out of the air. The Jets didn’t clear the zone, though, and Brodie scored with a wrister through traffic to make it 3-2. A little bit later, Sean Monahan was hooked on a scoring chance set up by Micheal Ferland. On the ensuing power play, Mason made a stop on a Giordano slapper from the point but Ferland fought off a tender and poked in the rebound to tie the game at 3-3. But the Flames had more up their sleeves. Lazar was hooked and Smith headed to the bench for an extra attacker; Brodie went for a slap shot and Perreault went down to block, so Brodie calmly fed Johnny Gaudreau at the side of the net for a one-timer goal to make it 4-3. A nice individual effort by Monahan led to another goal; he wasn’t able to generate a chance on his own in the Jets zone after a zone entry, but he found Kris Versteeg wandering in from the offensive zone for a tap-in and a 5-3 lead. Shots were 13-12 Flames, scoring chances were 6-5 Flames.

The Flames added one more insurance marker 16 seconds into the third. After an icing, Dougie Hamilton’s slapper from the point was tipped by Mikael Backlund to make it 6-3. The home side defended well from then on out. Shots were 17-5 Flames, scoring chances were 10-3 Flames.

The Flames woke up roughly 28 minutes into the game. After a very strong penalty kill – countering their rough kill in the first period that resulted in a Winnipeg goal – the team managed to score on their first rush up the ice and from there, it was off to the races. The Flames were out-worked and out-battled for 28 minutes and then, suddenly, weren’t.

Glen Gulutzan shuffling the lines midway through the second also has to be commended:

Let’s go with Brodie, who had a four point night and was superb after a rather pedestrian game against Edmonton. But there weren’t a lot of guys that weren’t dialed-in after the midway point of the third. It wasn’t quite an amazing 60 minutes of hockey, but the second half was definitely encouraging.

It’s gotta be the kill of Giordano’s first penalty midway through the second period. The Flames out-scored the Jets 5-0 after that.

Stockton lost a close one, dropping a 6-4 decision to the San Jose Barracuda. Andrew Mangiapane, Tyler Wotherspoon, Mark Jankowski, Garnet Hathaway and Rasmus Andersson all had multi-point games.

Dillon Dube had a goal and three assists in Kelowna’s 4-3 overtime win over Prince George, including scoring the OT winner.

“What went through my mind is ‘sometimes guys get a little excited to play with Johnny,’ you put ’em with Curtis [Lazar] and Benny and they just right away, the first shift they had a little spark. Sometimes you get lucky with these things, but I just thought we needed a change because we were a little stale.” – Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan on adjusting his lines in the middle of the second period.

“That’s just my luck. It’s probably the best one-timer I’ve ever taken before.” – Flames forward Curtis Lazar on Steve Mason’s save on his two-on-one chance in the second period.

The Flames (1-1-0) are off to Disneyland! They head to Anaheim, where they haven’t won since 2003, to face the Ducks on Monday night. They’re back home on Friday when they host the Ottawa Senators.