Post-Game: Flames lose close one in overtime

The Calgary Flames were generally outplayed throughout the duration of Game 2 against the Colorado Avalanche. But their goaltender was excellent and held them in the game. This one went to overtime, where the Avalanche managed to eke out a 3-2 victory.

The nervous tension of the opening period of Game 1 was replaced with a certain amount of animosity throughout Game 2, as Colorado did a good job putting bodies in front of Mike Smith… which led to big scrums after virtually every whistle in the Flames end.

The Avalanche had a few really nice scoring chances, but Smith was sharp early.

Shots were 15-10 Avalanche and scoring chances 7-3 Avalanche in the first period.

The Avalanche opened the scoring shorthanded. The second power play unit got caught under the hashmarks and the puck squirted out towards the point. Matt Nieto beat out TJ Brodie for the puck… and Brodie lost his stick in the exchange, so he watched in vain as Nieto rushed up ice and beat Smith high on a breakaway to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead (and their first goal of the series).

The Flames had to kill off a penalty shortly after that goal, as Smith cleared the puck over the glass. Despite Elias Lindholm’s stick breaking, the Flames blocked oodles of shots and killed off the penalty. Mark Giordano was hauled down trying to clear the zone, giving the Flames an advantage of their own. And on a slick bit of passing, Sam Bennett fed Rasmus Andersson with a no-look backhand pass across the goal-mouth for a wrister that beat Philipp Grubauer to make it a 1-1 hockey game.

Shots were 12-10 Avalanche and scoring chances 9-3 Avalanche in the second period.

The third period was pretty ugly and chippy, with neither team really giving the other much offensive daylight. But the Flames got a break off an offensive zone face-off win. Johnny Gaudreau’s shot was blocked and Bennett took a whack at it, but the puck bounced to Sean Monahan and he whacked at it and it beat Grubauer (who had no time to react) to give the Flames a 2-1 edge.

But the Avalanche pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker. After an offensive zone faceoff win, Smith made the initial stop on Gabriel Landeskog but JT Compher chipped the rebound past a sprawling Smith to tie the game back up at 2-2.

Shots were 10-10 in the third period and chances were 6-3 Avalanche.

The Flames had a power play in overtime but couldn’t score. Michael Frolik jammed at a loose puck but Grubauer made a big save. THe puck went the other way and Nathan MacKinnon scored off the rush to win it for the Avalanche by a 3-2 score.

Shots were 7-2 Flames in overtime and chances were 6-2 Flames.

The Avalanche were the better team throughout the first 40 minutes, with the Flames getting occasional bursts of good looks and scoring chances but finding ways to let the air out of the balloon (so to speak) and dissipate their own momentum. (Case in point: Bennett took a penalty at the end of the first period, so Calgary had to kill it off, gained some energy from the kill, drew a penalty, then gave up the first Colorado goal shorthanded and had to kill off another penalty soon after.)

But despite how… let’s call it uneven… the Flames were throughout this game, Smith was excellent and put them in a position where if they were better than the Avalanche in the late stages of the game they could eke out a victory. It didn’t quite work out, and it was a shame to see such a strong goaltending performance wasted.

It’s a joint award this evening, as Bennett had two primary assists and Smith made oodles of big saves. Take a bow, gentlemen. They were the big standouts from a home side that was otherwise rather pedestrian for much of the game.

It’s a tad obvious, but the overtime winner was the big turning point.

Bill Peters shuffled his lines significantly in the third period:

But once the game went to overtime, he went back to the team’s regular lines.

Game 3 of this Best-of-Seven series goes Monday night at 8 p.m. MT at the Pepsi Center in Denver.