Post-Game: Flames tame Bruins

Let’s be honest with ourselves here: the Calgary Flames were given a nice situation to walk into against the Boston Bruins. Boston had lost the night before in Ottawa and then had to fly home. Star goalie Tuukka Rask worked as back-up to Anton Khudobin, who was recalled from a conditioning stint this morning and has zero wins in the NHL this season.

Well, the Flames managed to grind out their 10th win of the season by a 2-1 score. It was by way of a familiar recipe: they played perfectly fine defensive hockey at even strength, and relied upon timely goals and some great goaltending from Chad Johnson (yet again).

After a rough outing in Ottawa, the Bruins came out with a lot of energy in the first. The Flames were game, though, and defended intelligently and didn’t give the Bruins very much. The Flames played a bit of a counter-punch game, and it paid off; after T.J. Brodie induced a turnover just inside the Flames zone, Matt Stajan collected the puck and sprung Sam Bennett on a breakaway. He beat Anton Khudobin (with two defenders in pursuit) to make it 1-0.

That’s all the scoring we got in the first. Shots were 13-5 for the Flames.

Three minutes into second, Brad Marchand angled Mark Giordano into Johnson, knocking him down and allowing Patrice Bergeron to score one a wide-open net. The Flames challenged on basis of goalie interference and the goal was disallowed.

The Bruins pressed for much of the second. The Flames were on their heels quite a bit, but defended fairly well and maintained their lead. Shots were 11-7 for Boston.

Calgary defended fairly well, even killing off a big Boston power play where the Bruins got seven shots. But just when things started to calm down, Boston kept pressing and the tired Flames defenders stood around while David Pastrnak got multiple whacks at the puck and beat Johnson to tie the game.

But the game wasn’t tied for long. Just over a minute later, Bennett circled around the back of Boston’s net, faked going for a wrap-around and fed Chiasson at the far side of the opposite post. He chipped the puck into the open net for the 2-1 lead. Boston pressed late and pulled their goalie, but they couldn’t get enough good chances to tie the game again. Shots were 20-9 Boston.

The Bruins played with more energy than the Flames and had the puck much more often. But in a very similar manner as the Columbus game, the Flames defended fairly well, limited second chances and played as smart without the puck as they could. Shots at even strength were about even (28-27 Boston), the Flames managed to avoid giving up any power play goals and Johnson was better than Khudobin.

It’s obvious, but Chiasson’s goal was huge. The game was tied up for 70 seconds. Boston didn’t get a chance to get comfortable with a lead and the Flames never got a chance to worry that this game might slip away.

We’re being repetitive, but it’s warranted: Johnson made 35 saves and was the team’s best player. Bennett was a close second, with two points and a whole lot of battling over the course of the game.

The Flames are now guaranteed to finish over .500 on this road trip. They’re 3-1-0 so far with two road games to go.

Johnson is now 7-3-1 with a 1.98 goals against average, .928 save percentage and .939 even strength save percentage. All of those numbers put him in the top third (or better) in the NHL.

The Flames (10-12-1) are in the home stretch of their road trip now. They head off to Philadelphia to play the Flyers on Sunday, then finish the trip off in Brooklyn on Monday night when they face the Islanders.