Post-Game: Flames Win Beantown Battle

Last season, the Calgary Flames won 35 games. With 18 games remaining in the 2014-15 season, this year’s edition of the squad has matched that win total. Their 35th win of this season came in an unfamiliar spot for wins – Boston, where they hadn’t won in years.

Their method of winning? Well, it was all-too-familiar if you’ve been following this team this season. The Flames beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in a shootout in a game that was quite entertaining, particularly in its dramatic finish.

This game was fairly typical of a 2014-15 Calgary Flames victory.

They gave up the first goal, as Brad Marchand scored mid-way through the first period. The Flames and Bruins subsequently traded goals for the rest of the game.

They were out-shot in two of the three periods (and overtime), with the only period they weren’t out-shot being a period where shots were even. Overall, they were out-shot 37-32 and the Corsi battle saw them out-attempted by a wide 89-52 berth. As a result, they were reliant on some heroic saves from Karri Ramo.

But hey, they managed to stick with it. Marchand’s goal was followed by a power-play marker from Sean Monahan (getting his 23rd goal of the year, besting his rookie season’s total). Milan Lucic put Boston back on top early in the second period after a successful Bruins penalty kill, but Jiri Hudler scored Calgary’s only even-strength goal of the game late in the second to tie things up. The third period saw Johnny Gaudreau get a goal on the power-play to give Calgary a lead, but Boston evened things up midway through the third off a Loui Eriksson effort to tie the game.

Overtime solved nothing, and the stage was set for a back-and-forth shootout. The skills competition was deadlocked before Flames coach Bob Hartley tapped an unlikely hero – David freakin’ Schlemko.

Once again, they were opportunistic. They got wildly out-chanced and slightly out-shot, but they made the most of their chances. They weren’t great at even-strength – giving up three goals to one of the NHL’s best five-on-five teams – but they were money on the power-play.

And then they once again managed to find ways to not lose by virtue of some timely goaltending by Karri Ramo, who has been superb this trip, and some heroics from unlikely sources.

Let’s go with Jiri Hudler, who had a goal and an assist and helped lead the way offensively for the Flames.

Stick-tap to Kris Russell, who tied Hudler for the team lead with five shots…and blocked an NHL record 15 shots from the Bruins. Oh, and Ramo made 34 saves and was pretty good, I guess.

The Flames are creeping ever-closer to a potential playoff spot! They’re back in action tomorrow night at Joe Louis Arena, where they face the Detroit Red Wings at 5:30pm MT!