Post-Game: Flames edge Ducks with late goal

The Calgary Flames closed out the first half of their season with another game against a divisional opponent that plays a heavy physical game. Despite getting up by two goals after a strong first period, the Flames ended up in what was at times a trench war with the Ducks – it included a pair of fights, to boot. While they did blow a two-goal lead, the Flames rallied back with a late goal to capture two points (and deny a divisional foe any) by a 3-2 score.

The Flames came out swinging with one of their best opening periods of the season. They were all over the Ducks and eventually the scoring chance dam burst… with goals. After a dump-in by Michael Stone, the Ducks attempted to play the puck under their goal line. Johnny Gaudreau stole it and found Micheal Ferland wandering into the slot for a tap-in and a 1-0 lead.

44 seconds later, the Flames doubled their lead with a nice play from their second line. A rush by Matthew Tkachuk was broken up just inside the Anaheim blueline. He and Mikael Backlund retrieved the puck and set up Mark Giordano for a one-timer from the point that glanced into the Ducks net off Kevin Bieksa to make it 2-0.

The Flames had a large shots (17-8) and scoring chance (10-3) advantage in the opening period.

Nobody scored in the second period, though the teams exchanged power plays. Late in the period things got a bit ugly after Derek Grant clipped Mike Smith behind the Flames net. Garnet Hathaway fought Grant and Sam Bennett fought Josh Manson. The bad blood continued through the rest of the game. Shots were 11-7 Ducks, scoring chances were 9-8 Flames.

The Ducks had a nice push in the third period, including some nice work on a few Flames power plays. With the Flames up for four minutes after a double-minor, Jakub Silfverberg took advantage of some sloppy Flames passing and stole the puck and scored on an odd-man rush to make it 2-1. After another Ducks penalty was killed off, the Ducks pressed again and Ryan Getzlaf scored with a wrister through traffic to tie the game. Both sides pressed late, but Ferland found Dougie Hamilton with a back-hand no-look pass and Hamilton made a nice move on Gibson and buried the puck to make it 3-2 with just 16 seconds remaining. Shots were 10-7 Ducks and scoring chances were 9-5 Ducks.

The Flames were the better team tonight. They didn’t dominate, and their power play was rough, but they scored goals when they had chances and hung in there when the game seemed to get away from them a bit. They were never out of this one, though they did seem to cede control to the Ducks for a good chunk of the third period.

Let’s go with Ferland, who had a head’s up play on the game’s opening goal and a really nice pass on the game’s closing goal. Nice book-ending, Micheal.

Obviously the game-winning goal with 16 seconds left was a big one, but the earlier big swing point of the game was the Silfverberg shortie. After that point, the air seemed to come out of the balloon for the Flames for quite a while.

Jon Gillies made 36 saves as Stockton beat San Antonio 4-3. Rasmus Andersson broke a third period tie with a power play goal. Matthew Phillips had three points in Victoria’s 5-4 overtime win over Kamloops.

By letter of the law, Hathaway received a deserved instigator penalty for his fight with Grant in the second period. That said, the instigator rule is pretty vaguely written; if you initiate a fight, you get a penalty, but isn’t crashing into the opposing goalie initiating an altercation? It’s a weird rule.

The Flames (21-16-4) practice and host the annual Superskills event tomorrow. Then it’s off on the road, where they begin a road trip in Minnesota on Tuesday night.