Post-Game: Flames declaw Bruins

The Calgary Flames hosted the red-hot Boston Bruins on Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Fresh off a three game road trip, the Flames played simple, opportunistic hockey en route to a 5-2 home victory.

Mike Smith was busy early, but the Flames started getting some nice scoring chances after a bit of a slow start. They eventually opened the scoring as an errant Bruins pass drifted into their zone. Matthew Tkachuk beat out a defender to the loose puck, waited for Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik to arrive, then triggered a tic-tac-toe passing play that ended with a Frolik one-timer and a 1-0 Flames lead.

The lead doubled after the Flames hit the Bruins zone with numbers. Noah Hanifin’s initial shot from the side-boards was stopped by Tuukka Rask, but the rebound was left in the net front area and Sean Monahan swept it to the side to Johnny Gaudreau, who tapped it in for a 2-0 Flames lead (and Gaudreau’s 100th NHL goal).

Just 48 seconds later, Juuso Valimaki’s shot from the point eluded all the bodies in front of the net – including Rask’s – to make it 3-0 Flames. That was Valimaki’s first as an NHLer.

David Pastrnak answered back for Boston before the first period ended, but that goal was called back on a coach’s challenge due to the zone entry being off-side. Shots were 14-10 Flames, scoring chances 11-10 Flames.

The Flames had a five on three advantage early in the second period but couldn’t bury their chances – or really generate much of anything. Patrice Bergeron jumped out of the penalty box and right into an odd-man rush, beating Mike Smith through his five-hole to make it 3-1. But 52 seconds later the Flames answered back: Tkachuk’s forecheck led to Boston coughing up the puck to Backlund, who found Frolik at the side of the net for a tap-in and pushed the Flames lead to 4-1.

The Bruins cut the lead to 4-2 later in the period, as a gorgeous cross-ice pass from Patrice Bergeron somehow found Brad Marchand all alone by the side of the net and he beat Smith with a wrister. Shots were 9-8 Flames, scoring chances 10-5 Flames.

The Flames basically defended for much of the third, but did so intelligently. Tkachuk scored into an empty net with 51 seconds left to make it a 5-2 final. Shots were 8-6 Bruins in the third.

The Flames scored early, scored often, and were good enough defensively that they really didn’t seem to tense up when Boston pressured later in the game. It wasn’t a perfect outing – looking at you, power play – but they were a little bit better than the Bruins in virtually every facet of the game.

If they can do this consistently, they may become a going concern in the Western Conference.

A game after being a healthy spectator, Frolik had a pair of goals and looked dangerous all night. Stick-taps to his two linemates, though, as Backlund and Tkachuk kept feeding him the puck in dangerous situations.

The Flames got a couple of big penalty kills in the latter part of this game that cemented the result. The first was a kill of a Garnet Hathaway minor right after Marchand scored to make it 4-2.

The second kill was of a 58 second five-on-three the Bruins had to begin the third period, with both TJ Brodie and Backlund in the box. The Bruins generated zero shots on either the two man advantage or the two minutes of power play time overall.

For the second consecutive home date, the Flames wore their sweet vintage red jerseys. For the second consecutive home date, they won in said jerseys.

Gaudreau was stopped on a late scoring chance and then crushed by Charlie McAvoy.

He played one more shift in the rest of the game (but the Flames were up handily at that point).

The Flames (4-2-0) have a recovery day tomorrow, then prepare for a visit from the Nashville Predators on Friday night at the Saddledome.