Post-Game: Flames and Lightning go the distance

Thursday night’s game between the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning was heavily hyped prior to puck drop. It lived up to the hype, as the two clubs engaged in a tactical battle of wills for over 60 minutes. It went to the shootout, where Tampa Bay captured a tight 5-4 victory.

The Lightning opened the scoring off a scambly play. David Rittich made a big breakaway stop on Ondrej Palat, but the Flames couldn’t clear the zone and off a goal-mouth scramble Palat poked in the rebound to make it 1-0 Tampa.

But the Flames responded back fairly quickly, as Matthew Tkachuk sprung Sam Bennett on a partial breakaway. Louis Domingue made the initial stop, but the puck squirted through his pads and Bennett poked in his own rebound – it was trickling towards the goal line anyway, but he made sure it got there – to make it a 1-1 hockey game.

A little bit later Sean Monahan’s line generated some offensive zone time and cycled the puck a bit. Elias Lindholm chucked the puck towards the slot where a wide-open Monahan chipped it into the top corner to give the Flames a 2-1 lead.

The Flames extended their lead off a really effective grinding shift from Mikael Backlund’s line, particularly some battling below the goal line by Sam Bennett. He won a battle and found Backlund in front of the net, and he scored after a quick scramble out front to make it 3-1 for the home side.

Shots were 12-8 Flames and scoring chances were 14-5 Flames.

Tampa really pressed in the second period. The Flames couldn’t generate much on an early power play. Rittich made a big stop on a Steven Stamkos breakaway, but again the Flames couldn’t quite get control of the puck after the stop. TJ Brodie ended up tipping a Stamkos pass to Adam Erne past Rittich while trying to break up a two-on-one, and that made it a 3-2 game.

The Lightning tied things up a little bit later. The Flames couldn’t corral a loose puck and allowed Alex Killorn several whacks at it. His fourth whack went in, tying the game up at 3-3. The Flames closed out the period with three penalties, but they managed to kill them off to keep the game at a deadlock.

Shots were 14-8 Lightning and chances 13-5 Lightning in the second.

The third period was tight-checking, but led to a flurry of goals near the end of regulation. Dan Girardi made it 4-3 Lightning with just over four minutes left, as his point shot hit Garnet Hathaway’s stick and rose past Rittich. But Johnny Gaudreau jumped on an errant pass in the neutral zone and out-raced Girardi and Victor Hedman, putting a backhander through Domingue’s legs to make it 4-4.

Shots were 12-10 Flames in the third, while chances were even at 7-7.

This contest went to overtime. It was a wild back and forth period, with several good scoring chances for both teams – including a stretch where Domingue made three rapid-fire saves on the Flames attackers. Shots were 7-2 Flames in overtime, but neither side scored.

The two teams went to the shootout. The shootout went to seven rounds and the Lightning won it. Victor Hedman and J.T. Miller scored for the Lightning. Monahan scored for the Flames.

The Flames were really good in the first period and were back on their heels in the second, particularly given their puck management got quite sloppy early in that period. But they made adjustments and didn’t give Tampa a ton of good looks in the third period.

Bennett was superb in this game. He was physical. He made smart plays. He was emotionally engaged. He played on the edge, but didn’t get suckered into taking any silly penalties.

Gaudreau and Rittich also had strong games, as did the entire Flames penalty-killing contingent.

Gaudreau’s goal to tie the game up captured a well-deserved point for the Flames. They faced a big test against a potent Lightning club, and played well enough to at least get a point.

This was a really good hockey game.

Bill Peters shuffled his lines twice in this game. The first tweak was swapping Mark Jankowski and Derek Ryan, promoting Ryan to the third line in the second period. The second tweak was more of a wholesale shuffle in the third period:

Ryan Lomberg, Alan Quine and Garnet Hathaway saw sporadic duty in the third.

The Flames (22-11-3) practice tomorrow. They host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon in their last game prior to the holiday break.