Post-Game: Flames can’t solve Markstrom, get a point anyway

Friends, from time to time a hockey club will be utterly frustrated by a hot goaltender. On Saturday night, the Calgary Flames put 47 shots on Vancouver Canucks netminder Jacob Markstrom. The Flames couldn’t figure him out, but managed to earn a much-needed point in a 4-3 shootout loss in Vancouver.

Vancouver opened the scoring 44 seconds in, scoring on their first shot on David Rittich. It was a set play off a Canucks face-off win, as Bo Horvat took a pass from Chris Tanev and beat Rittich going side-to-side to make it 1-0.

But the Flames responded back, as their top line scored a pretty nice goal off the rush. Johnny Gaudreau’s first shot was turned aside from Markstrom, but Sean Monahan collected the puck and found Elias Lindholm in the slot. Lindholm buried the puck to make it a 1-1 game.

But the Canucks re-took the lead off a really nice shot from the high slot by Josh Leivo. It was a wrist shot with a brief hesitation that changed the angle of the shot. Between the shot’s angle and a trio of bodies between Rittich and the shooter, the shot beat the Flames goaltender five-hole to make it 2-1 Vancouver.

But the Flames responded back, as James Neal’s initial shot was stopped by Markstrom. The rebound bounced around and Sam Bennett pounced on it, bonking it in to make it a 2-2 game.

Shots were 13-11 Flames in first and scoring chances 10-10.

The Flames were borderline dominant in the second period, with the first 13 shots of the second period. Andrew Mangiapane gave the Flames a lead with the 17th Calgary shot of the period, a one-timer off a nice pass from Noah Hanifin after Garnet Hathaway caused a turnover with a nice hit behind the play.

But the Canucks answered back, as Brock Boeser buried a cross-zone pass from Elias Pettersson during some four-on-four play. That goal made it a 3-3 game.

Shots were 20-5 Flames and chances 17-7 Flames in the second.

Neither team scored in third period, though both had their chances. The Flames had six minutes of power play time, but just couldn’t bury anything.

Shots 14-8 were Flames and chances 8-5 Flames in the third period.

Overtime was full of end-to-end rushes. Mark Giordano hit the post at one end, then took a slashing call on Brock Boeser as the play went the other way. The Flames managed to kill off that penalty to force a shootout. In the skills competition Pettersson was the sole scorer to give Vancouver a 4-3 win.

The Flames put a crap-ton of shots on Markstrom, but only got three goals to show for it. The Canucks did a pretty solid job of keeping the Flames to the outside and minimizing screens and tips. The Flames got a bit too cute at times with their plays and while they did dominate possession, they didn’t make life difficult enough for the Canucks by playing a desperate, direct game in the offensive zone.

On the other side, at least two of the Canucks goals can be attributed to some soft defensive coverage in the Flames end. At even strength, the Flames just aren’t playing tight enough and it gave the Canucks a few too many high-quality scoring chances.

Mangiapane had five shots despite barely playing, so let’s give the nod to him. But many Flames had pretty decent offensive nights, with 14 skaters registering shots on goal.

Also, stick-tap to Travis Hamonic for being a crazy person.

The Flames had a full four minute power play in the middle of the third period with the game tied. They just couldn’t get enough grade-A chances to get pucks past Markstrom.

The Flames are 8-0-4 when tied after two periods (and a combined 27-1-4 when tied or leading).

James Neal lost a bunch of teeth in the middle of the third period via a high stick.

The Flames (34-15-6) head to sunny Florida tomorrow. They face the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday evening.