Post-Game: Sometimes You Lose (In OT)

It’s a tale as old as time. A verse as old as rhyme.

The Calgary Flames have habitually gotten themselves behind the eight-ball this season by virtue of giving their opponents leads, quite often by margins of one or two goals. Once again, though, the Flames managed to make an impressive comeback.

They didn’t win tonight, but they got a crucial point by way of a 3-2 overtime loss to the visiting Minnesota Wild. All this despite giving the Wild a 2-0 first period lead like friendly hosts.

The Wild were on the Flames like stink early-on, out-shooting the home side 11-5 near the end of the period, though the Flames came back and the period ended with a closer 11-9 Wild shot edge. And like last time they visited, Minnesota struck first, by way of a Justin Fontaine marker mid-way through the period. Shortly thereafter, the Wild had a power-play and generated some shots (after a Joe Colborne penalty), but they ended up extending their lead to 2-0 off a Matt Dumba goal just a smidge after Colborne returned to the ice. Not all was lost, though, nor were the Flames waiting until the final period to start a comeback – Jiri Hudler tipped home a Dennis Wideman shot late in the period to send everyone to the locker rooms with the score 2-1 for the Wild.

Nobody scored in the second, though that was mostly due to Devan Dubnyk’s heroics. Calgary wildly out-chanced the Wild, and out-shot them by a 14-7 margin. A lot of that was based on two power-plays, and Dubnyk was particularly sharp on those exchanges.

The comeback was completed in the third, as Lance Bouma continued his excellent recent stretch by converting his 11th goal of this season to make it 2-2. (Dennis Wideman had his second assist of the game, to boot.) Calgary pressed but couldn’t beat Dubnyk late, so it went to extra time. And after a quick exchange at the Wild end that featured more Flames chances to win it – including a gorgeous chance for Hudler – Mikko Koivu put one past Jonas Hiller to give Minnesota a razor-thin 3-2 win.

Well, they probably shouldn’t rely on goaltending and comebacks to win games. They gave the Wild far too much early-on and really had to be sharp for the rest of the game. However, the team’s depth continues to shine, and it was mostly due to Devan Dubnyk (again) that the Flames didn’t win. They certainty generated enough pucks on net to be competitive.

As much as I want to go with Bouma again, let’s go with the captain. Mark Giordano was held off the scoresheet, but he played over 28 minutes against Minnesota’s best players and still managed five shots on goal, leading the Flames in that category.

The Flames (32-22-4) have a day to regroup, and then it’s back into the breach. They host the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.