Post-Game: Fancy feast

Tonight’s visit to the Florida Panthers was a game that the Calgary Flames probably would have lost six weeks ago. That’s not to say that the Flames weren’t playing well six weeks ago, it’s just that this game had all the makings of a let-down game: Second game of a back-to-back, nearing the end of a road trip, and the Panthers have been playing really well over the last while.

But the Flames have been playing well and getting the bounces over the past few weeks (which wasn’t happening six weeks ago). It happened against tonight in South Florida, with Calgary getting timely goals, good goaltending and good enough defense en route to a 4-2 victory over the Panthers.

As has become tradition on this road trip seemingly, the Flames got out of the gates a little slowly. Nick Bjugstad opened the scoring on an early power play, rifling a one-timer past Chad Johnson as the Flames tried to get set up in the zone following a unit change. The Panthers led for about four minutes, though, as the Flames answered back on a shift with a bunch of nice individual efforts. The puck careened into the Panthers zone and the Flames beat out the defender for the loose puck, battled to get the puck to the point and then Sam Bennett battled to bat in the rebound in front of Roberto Luongo to tie things up.

Just after that goal, the Flames took the lead for good on a nice odd-man rush from 3M Line. Matthew Tkachuk fed the biscuit to Mikael Backlund for a tap-in and a 2-1 lead.

Before the period was up, the 3M Line had another rush that resulted in a goal, as Deryk Engelland led the rush and knocked in a rebound to make it 3-1.

Sasha Barkov scored late off a nice passing sequence with Jonathan Huberdeau late to make it 3-2. Shots were 11-8 Flames in the first.

After the Flames had to kill off an early second period penalty, they got a goal from a somewhat unlikely source. With the lines shuffled a bit after the penalty kill, Troy Brouwer played with the fourth line for a shift and got an absolute gift from Matt Stajan as the vet put the puck right on Brouwer’s stick for a tap-in and a 4-2 lead.

The Panthers pressed from then on, but the Flames seemed content to chip and chase and wind down the clock. Shots 16-6 Florida in second.

Neither side scored in the third, primarily due to a combination of the Flames seemingly not wanting to exert themselves offensively – they focused on limiting second chances in their own end – and Johnson being locked-in between the pipes. Shots were 14-11 Florida in the third.

The Flames just kept doing what they’ve been doing over the past five or six games. They played a very straightforward brand of hockey for three periods. They were obviously trying to leave some gas in the tank late, so once they got up by a pair they were content to merely limit Florida’s chances, but they’re not running around like crazy people in their own end. They’re defending intelligently, they’re picking their spots offensively and they’re getting contributions from their line-up when they need it.

They got enough offense and good enough goaltending that tonight’s game never really seemed in doubt after they went up two goals.

The Panthers are a very good offensive team. I did mention that the outcome didn’t seem in doubt once they went up two goals initially (3-1 after the Engelland goal), but Florida seemed much more deflated by the Brouwer goal to make it 4-2. They had just blown a power play opportunity which could’ve drawn them even and instead they found themselves even further back.

Johnson came in after not playing for awhile and made 36 saves.

Honourable mention to Backlund, Tkachuk, Frolik, Hamilton and Giordano.

After tonight, Flames are 23-0-1 when leading after 40 minutes of play.

Backlund (43 points) and Tkachuk (41 points) are the top two leading Flames in team scoring. Hamilton leads all defenders in scoring with 39 points.

The Flames (32-26-4) finish off their five game road trip with a Sunday matinee against the Carolina Hurricanes.

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