Post-Game: Flames finally beat Vegas in season finale

The Calgary Flames exorcised a personal demon on Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. In their fourth meeting of the season, in their final game of the season, the Flames finally solved the expansion Vegas Golden Knights. With Vegas’ troops looking like they had their minds on Wednesday’s opening of the playoffs the Flames made some hay, trouncing the Golden Knights 7-1 to send the crowd home happy. (Well, happy with tonight’s result, not happy with the previous 81 games.)

This game was a rarity of sorts, a game the Flames led for virtually the entirety and never trailed. They opened the scoring four minutes into the period as Micheal Ferland grabbed a loose puck inside the Vegas zone, drove the net and fed Johnny Gaudreau for a tap-in and a 1-0 lead. 10 seconds later, before they had a chance to announce the goal in the arena, the Flames scored again on an almost identical rush: Gaudreau fed Mark Jankowski for the tap-in on an odd-man rush to make it 2-0. A couple minutes later Jankowski scored again just as a power play expired, taking a Nick Shore pass while straddling the Vegas red line and bonking the puck in off the inside of Marc-Andre Fleury’s far pad to make it 3-0. Shots were 6-6 and scoring chances were 7-4 for Vegas.

Vegas spoiled Jon Gillies’ shutout bid 51 seconds into the second period, as Gaudreau bobbled the puck inside the Vegas zone and Cody Eakin stole the loose puck and beat Gillies on a breakaway to make it 3-1. The Flames added another market midway through the period on a really nice puck retrieval shift by the fourth line. Matt Stajan, Garnet Hathaway and Curtis Lazar grinded and cycled the puck, ending with Stajan shuffling a nice pass to Hathaway at the side of the net for another tap-in to extend the lead to 4-1. 90 seconds later Spencer Foo made it 5-1, as he buried the rebound after Mikael Backlund was foiled on a two-on-one rush. Jankowski completed the hat trick while short-handed, as he and Hathaway went in on a two-on-two rush. Jankowski’s initial shot was stopped by Fleury, but he couldn’t collect the rebound and Jankowski potted it to make it 6-1. Shots were 14-12 Vegas, but chances were 14-10 Flames.

Malcolm Subban came in to play the third period for Vegas. Jankowski scored his fourth of the game on that power play, as he buried the rebound off an initial Troy Brouwer shot to make it 7-1. The Flames had further advantages but couldn’t score. Shots were 13-7 Flames, but chances were 12-8 Vegas.

 

The Golden Knights looked like a team that was trying to get out of this game in one piece. They weren’t their usual selves in terms of battling and engaging. That suited the Flames fine, as they played probably the loosest and fasted we’ve seen them play in probably about two months. They looked like a confident group with nothing to lose because, well, they were exactly that.

Full marks to the home side, though, as they finally sent the crowd home happy.

Jankowski put together just the 14th four goal game in Flames franchise history, so he’s a natural for this. But a lot of players looked sharp, especially a very nice game from the Sam Bennett-Mikael Backlund-Spencer Foo line. Granted, it’s Game 82 on a non-playoff team, but credit where it’s due.

Jankowski’s first goal stood as the eventual game-winner, but his second goal – a shot that banked in off Fleury’s far pad – was the third goal in 3:28 and capped a hellacious first period for the home side.

Jankowski’s hat trick came exactly two years after Mikael Backlund scored his first career NHL hat trick under identical circumstances: the final home game in a playoff-less season against a divisional opponent.

Dougie Hamilton left the game after the second period with an upper-body injury.

The Flames’ five-on-three unit in the third period consisted of Lazar, Jankowski, Foo, Stone and Kulak. It seems obvious that Glen Gulutzan wanted to get a lot of players going offensively on this evening.

The Flames finish the season with a 37-35-10 record. They’re off tomorrow and have exit meetings on Monday, then they disperse for the summer. The 2017-18 season is complete. But our post-mortem on the year that was is just getting started here at FlamesNation.