Post-Game: That Just Happened (or Capital Gains)

This was a weird game.

The Flames through the first 40 minutes looked like a team that had already lost the game. They missed passes. They couldn’t bury chances. They looked like a team that had their minds on sleeping in their own beds tonight for the first time in two weeks.

And then the third period happened and everything went out the window.

After trailing 4-0 through the first two periods, the Calgary Flames roared back and salvaged a point from one of their most uneven games of the season by way of a 5-4 shootout loss tonight in Ottawa.

The Flames weren’t great in the first period, but they were shaky and seemed to get shakier as the period wore on. Alex Chiasson broke the scoreless deadlock mid-way through the period, after being left all alone by the side of the net to knock home a rebound. Milan Michalek scored with 8 seconds left in the period to put the Flames really behind the eight-ball through 20. Shots were 15-10 Ottawa.

The Senators continued their strong play in the second period. Matt Borowiecki scored early in the period and Mike Hoffman made it 4-0 before the game was half-over. Everyone in Calgary turned their TVs over to the Brier. The Senators did their best to keep Calgary to the outside. Jonas Hiller came in to mop up. Shots were 16-11 Ottawa. Hope was low.

But because this is the 2014-15 Calgary Flames, they came back.

Calgary out-shot the Ottawa Senators, who had a 4-0 lead at home after two periods, 24-9 in the final frame. Seven minutes in, Joe Colborne leaned into a shot that eluded Craig Anderson, who had been superb to that point. That began Ottawa’s miraculous collapse. Kris Russell scored from the point on a power-play. Mikael Backlund knocked in a loose puck about a minute later that pinballed around Anderson’s crease. Russell scored again from the point with two minutes left. In about ten minutes, the game swung from 4-0 to 4-4.

Overtime solved nothing. Calgary had a few chances to win the game in a shootout, shooting second – including The David Schlemko hitting the post – but Ottawa beat Jonas Hiller three times while Calgary scored twice, so Ottawa got the extra point.

Still, the entire third period was a gorgeous spectacle to behold, and I’m astonished that the game went the distance.

Well, Ottawa seemed to settle into a rhythm, and then Calgary scored the first goal and Ottawa seemed to panic. Calgary’s comebacks are fueled seemingly by their belief that they can win any game, no matter what the score. When that first goal went in, the Flames were like sharks when there’s blood in the water.

Ottawa? They were frantic and never really settled down until overtime.

The first 40 minutes were a tired, tired team going through the motions. Then they adjusted, kept pushing and someway, somehow, came back yet again.

Once again, I gotta go with Kris Russell. He played nearly 30 minutes, scored twice to help drive the comeback and generally has stepped into Mark Giordano’s on-ice leadership role in his absence.

And hey, Dennis Wideman played 30 minutes, while Jonas Hiller made 19 saves to keep the Flames in it when it counted.

Someway, somehow, the Calgary Flames went 4-2-1 on their murderous road trip out east. They return home with a 36-25-5 record. They’re off tomorrow to recover, then get ready for their next match, a clash with the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday evening.