Post-Game: Hanging On

The Calgary Flames officially began the post-Giordano portion of their season this evening in the City of Brotherly Love. Against all odds, they began it with a win, evening their record on their epic road trip of epicness at 2-2-0 by way of a 3-2 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers. After getting an early lead, the Calgary Flames were able to hold on.

Here’s how it went down.

Sean Monahan opened the scoring in first period with his 22nd of the year. The Flames out-shot the Flyers 12-10 in the opening frame. It was a period full of chances at both ends of the ice.

The Flames went up 2-0 in the second off a goal by Mikael Backlund, his first in several games. Emile Poirier got an assist for his first NHL point, as he began the cycling play that led to the goal. Despite the score, though, the Flyers out-shot Calgary 12-5 in the second and really pressed for a goal as the period wore on.

The Flyers roared back in the third, scoring twice off goals by Mark Streit and Sean Couturier, and a disallowed goal that could’ve turned the tide but was thrown out due to contact with the goalie. Shots were 15-7 for the Flyers. The Flames basically white-knuckled it in the third, clinging to their tenuous hope for a win.

Just over a minute into overtime, though, Jiri Hudler scored his 20th to win the game for the visitors.

They got enough goals early-on to get them to overtime, and Karri Ramo was excellent when the rest of the team was holding on for dear life in the third period. The Flames were out-shot 37-26 overall, but Ramo was a big difference-maker and gave the team a chance to win in overtime.

Because that’s the way this season is going – and this team is both lucky and good at four-on-four – they managed to pick up the extra point in extra time.

Karri Ramo, once again, was excellent in net.

Oh, and stick-tap to Dennis Wideman, who played just shy of 30 minutes.

Coming soon!

Flames…win? The team that nobody thought would amount to anything took one more tentative step closer to the post-season with their 34th win of 2014-15. They need one more win to match all the wins they got last season. They need 11 more wins to potentially clinch a playoff berth.

Can they do it? I’m not sure, but I definitely didn’t think we’d be having “can they make the playoffs?” conversations when the season began, so I’m not about to completely write these guys off yet.

The Flames now trek to Beantown, where they face the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening.