Post-Game: Sharks edge Flames in shootout

The Calgary Flames returned from their Christmas break with a crucial game that begins a string of several crucial games. The Flames visited the San Jose Sharks. They played 25 really good minutes and then 35 fairly decent minutes, but fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Sharks.

It was a solid effort on an evening where they needed a little more than solid game to get two points.

The Flames opened the scoring and generally played a strong first period. The Sharks got caught on a lazy clearing attempt that was held in by T.J. Brodie and chucked towards the net. It bounced around the crease, and Sam Bennett and Garnet Hathaway out-battled the Sharks defenders, with Hathaway knocking in the loose puck to make it 1-0. But the lead didn’t last, as with Matt Stajan in the penalty box the Sharks cashed in on the power play. Some nice passing ended with Joe Pavelski waiting out a sliding Flames shot-blocker and beating David Rittich blocker-side to make it 1-1. But the Flames answered back.

The Flames first power-play of the game was not good. Their second power-play was better. The first unit had a scoring chance broken up, but Matthew Tkachuk recovered the puck and fed a slap-pass to Mikael Backlund at the top of the crease for a redirect and a 2-1 lead. Shots were 11-8 Flames, scoring chances were 10-4 Flames.

Neither team scored in the second, but Michael Frolik left the game 8:24 into the second period after blocking a Brent Burns shot with his face. He skated off under his own power, but was understandably not able to finish the game. That exit led to some shuffling of Flames lines and, shockingly, the scoring chances started swinging the other way when the Flames lost a top six forward. Shots were 13-7 Sharks, scoring chances were 11-7 Sharks.

The Sharks finally got the equalizer midway through the third. Once again, another Burns slapper tilted the game. Timo Meier redirected a Burns shot through traffic to tie the game. From there, both teams seemed to play for overtime. Shots were 12-9 Flames, scoring chances were 11-9.

The Flames were all over San Jose in overtime, but just couldn’t score. Rittich made a big save on Joe Thornton on the lone good Sharks chance. Shots were 4-1 in overtime. Couture and Joonas Donskoi scored in the shootout to make this a 3-2 win for San Jose.

Honestly, a lot of this can be placed on the Frolik injury exit. For the first 28 minutes, the Flames had three lines that were rolling and it was tough for the Sharks to isolate their scoring threats. When Frolik went out, 45-year-old Jaromir Jagr (in just his second game in weeks after a recurring groin injury flared up) had to jump into the top six. That makes it a lot easier to negate offensive threats with smart line matching, and that’s largely what happened.

The power-play is still very much a work in progress. The Flames had a third period power play prior to the Sharks tying goal. They did squat with it. Good, mature teams with killer instinct bury their opponents when given those types of chances. The Flames are a better team than they were a year ago (or two, or three years ago), but they’re not quite there yet.

But hey, they played a road game against a divisional opponent, started their backup goalie and lost Frolik halfway through the game and still got a point.

Rittich made 30 saves and was good in the third when the team really seemed to get slammed by the Sharks speed (and line-matching).

The Meier goal to tie the game came at the end of a stretch where the Flames were trying to claw momentum away from the Sharks (and were failing to). It was bound to happen the way the game was swinging, but it still sapped energy from the bench for awhile.

Glenn Gawdin had two assists in an 8-2 Swift Current loss to Moose Jaw. Matthew Phillips had two goals in a 7-1 Victoria win over Prince George. Andrew Mangiapane had three points as Stockton rallied from a third period deficit but lost 6-5 to San Jose in overtime.

The Flames (18-15-4) fly south tonight, as they’ll face the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow at the Honda Center.