Post-Game: Flames win ugly against Carolina

The Calgary Flames weren’t great on Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. But despite being outplayed fairly handily by the Carolina Hurricanes, they managed to be held in the game by their goaltender. The Flames beat the Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime in their final game before an extended break.

If you have the game taped, don’t watch the first period. It was 20 minutes filled with icings, stoppages and just overall not particularly watchable hockey. The Flames opened the scoring 1:58 in, as Oliver Kylington drove the net after winning a puck battle. He chipped the puck past Petr Mrazek to make it 1-0 Flames. The Hurricanes challenged on the basis of goaltender interference, but the good stood.

The Hurricanes carried play for much of the period, in-between the icings. They finally broke through late, as Dougie Hamilton’s point shot was inadvertently swatted past David Rittich to make it a 1-1 game.

Shots were 15-8 Hurricanes and scoring chances were 14-5 Hurricanes in the first period.

The second period was another sleepy affair, but the Flames managed to take the lead during a stretch of four on four hockey. TJ Brodie fed Mikael Backlund at the side of the net, and he fed Mark Jankowski (at the other post) for a tap-in that made it 2-1 Flames.

Shots were 11-3 Hurricanes, scoring chances 7-2 Hurricanes in the second period.

The Flames tried to kill the clock in the third period, but the Hurricanes took advantage of a tired group that were trying to hit an empty net late. Sebastian Aho beat Rittich with 43 seconds left in regulation to tie this at 2-2.

Shots were 13-9 Flames and scoring chances were 6-6 in the third.

Backlund scored on the rush 15 seconds into extra time to give the Flames the 3-2 win.

The Hurricanes were the better team. They skated well and played with desperation. But the Flames were the beneficiaries of good goaltending and some opportunistic scoring. That was enough for them to grind out two ugly points.

Rittich basically gifted his teammates two points on this evening. Andersson, Kylington and Hathaway also looked good, but Rittich was far and away their best player.

Backlund’s overtime winner was a nice way to finish this one.

This was Mark Giordano’s 804th game with the Flames, passing Al MacInnis for sole possession of third place on the franchise leaderboard. Only Jarome Iginla (1219) and Robyn Regehr (826) have played more games in a Flames jersey.

The Flames are now 26-1-3 when entering the third period leading or tied this season.

The Flames (33-13-5) are now on their combined All-Star and CBA break. They’re back in action next Friday (Feb. 1) when they visit the Washington Capitals.