Post-Game: Flames tame Coyotes in matinee

The Calgary Flames couldn’t bury their chances on Friday in Las Vegas. They rebounded with a strong offensive outing in Arizona, trouncing the Arizona Coyotes by a 6-1 score on Sunday afternoon.

The Flames got off to a bit of a slow start, failing to register a shot in the first five minutes of the game. But they eventually got their legs under them and that led to them opening the scoring. On a lengthy shift in the Coyotes zone Johnny Gaudreau found Sean Monahan at the side of the net with a nice pass from below the goal line to make it 1-0 Flames.

On a penalty kill, the Flames were rewarded for some aggressive play. Garnet Hathaway carried the puck deep into the Coyotes zone. Noah Hanifin attempted a cross-crease pass to Hathaway, but the puck hit Antti Raanta and went in to make it 2-0 Flames.

Shots were 10-8 Flames and scoring chances 4-2 Flames.

James Neal was buzzing a lot against Vegas but wasn’t rewarded. He was rewarded in the second period against Arizona. He drew a penalty in front of the Coyotes net and on the ensuing power play Noah Hanifin buried a rebound off a Neal scoring chance to make the game 3-0 Flames.

Elias Lindholm was stopped on a penalty shot by Raanta. A few minutes later the fourth line generated a goal off a nice bit of passing and hustle. Mark Jankowski drove into the Coyotes zone. He passed it back to Dillon Dube, who passed it to TJ Brodie, who found Jankowski sneaking to the far post with a pass for the tap-in to extend the lead to 4-0 Flames.

Shots were 12-7 Flames and chances 11-7 Flames.

The Flames extended their lead to 5-0 with another short-handed goal, as Brodie’s attempted cross-slot pass went in off a defender.

Immediately after, Jankowski made it 6-0 after muscling through three Coyotes defenders behind the net and beating Raanta five-hole.

Raanta was replaced by Adin Hill after the sixth Flames goal. Clayton Keller broke up Mike Smith’s shutout bid after a bad pass from Travis Hamonic – Hamonic smashed his stick over the crossbar and apologied to Smith afterwards for the gaffe. But 6-1 was as close as Arizona got.

Shots were 11-5 Coyotes and chances were 5-4 Coyotes, but much of that was a product of score effects in a game that was well in hand for the Flames.

Since the loss to the Penguins a month ago, the Flames have essentially played the same style of game. They didn’t give the Coyotes very much room to breathe, they buried their own chances, and they got good enough goaltending that Arizona never got much momentum.

The Flames were playing a team that has struggled to score and didn’t give them many freebies. That’s usually enough to capture two points.

Hanifin was very good and gets the nod, but Jankowski and a few other Flames were also quite good. The score doesn’t reflect it, but Smith had a strong game in his first appearance in awhile.

Hanifin’s short-handed goal doubled the Flames lead and gave them some breathing room heading into the intermission. With their playing style and defensive stinginess, two goals is usually enough and the Coyotes seemed to deflate from there.

For the second time on this trip, the Flames wore their red home sweaters:

The Flames scored three short-handed goals:

Because the Coyotes retained salary on Smith’s contract when they traded him to the Flames, technically they paid him to beat them this afternoon.

The Flames (14-9-1) head home. They’re off tomorrow, then prepare to host the Dallas Stars at the Saddledome on Wednesday night.