Post-Game: The Kids Ice The Penguins

Tonight, the Calgary Flames hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins – a non-conference opponent, playing their second game in as many nights on the road.

It was as good a shot as the Flames were gonna get against a good club. And the Flames responded to this opportunity with easily their most complete game of the year, a 5-2 win driven by the strong play of their youngest (and most talented) players.

Facing a team that played the night before, the Flames performed about as well as they could’ve hoped in the first period. They led in shots and attempts the whole way – aided in no small part by drawing three penalties, though one was a bit wonky. The man advantages contributed to two of the three goals. The opening goal was a product of Sam Bennett’s patience; just after a minor to Sidney Crosby expired, T.J. Brodie’s stick shattered. So Bennett held onto the puck, waited for Joe Colborne to skate into the slot, and fed him for a nice wrister to make it 1-0. Phil Kessel took advantage of a Brodie turn-over to tie it up with a nice far-side shot on Ramo. But after Ben Lovejoy took a penalty, the Flames went to work.

Johnny Gaudreau got a tap-in off a gorgeous passing play, and then 50 seconds later Sam Bennett dangled around Ian Cole and beat Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 3-1. The locals led in everything you could hope to in the first: 16-8 shots, 11-8 even-strength shots, 28-13 shot attempts, 19-11 face-offs and 3-1 goals. It was a rock-solid first period.

The second period was more even, as the Flames and Penguins exchanged chances (and later in the period, goals). T.J. Brodie is going to have nightmares about this one.

A nice pinch by Dougie Hamilton to keep the puck in the offensive zone led to this gem.

Nick Bonino scored late on a Penguins power-play with Sam Bennett in the box for inference, right after T.J. Brodie both led a 3-on-2 rush for the Flames short-handed and then raced back to break up a Penguins rush coming the other way. David Jones had a penalty shot after he was hauled down after splitting the defense, but he shot it high and wide. The Flames led in shots 11-10 in the second (11-9 at even-strength), but the Penguins held sway in shot attempts (18-16) and face-offs (15-6).

The third period was low-event hockey, in that the Flames played a scrambly game at times, but did their absolute best to eat up the clock without letting shots accumulate on the scoreboard. Heck, the two teams combined for two shots in the first nine minutes. It was that kind of period. The Penguins pulled Fleury with just under three minutes remaining, and Johnny Gaudreau added an empty-netter to ice it for the home side. Shots were 7-4 for the Penguins (5-4 at even-strength), and the Penguins dominated in shot attempts (19-9) and face-offs (12-4), but they really didn’t generate many dangerous situations.

They were much better than the Penguins in the first, they were slightly better than them in the second, and they were good enough in the third.

They skated circles around their tired opponents and executed smart, simple plays well, and gradually they gained the confidence to try (and execute) fancier stuff, too. They got the saves they needed, the got the goals they needed, and once Sam Bennett scored the eventual game-winner (late in the first period), the outcome wasn’t in question.

I’m gonna go with Johnny Gaudreau, as he had two goals and three points and was generally quite good. But man, there were a lot of good performances by the gentlemen in red this evening. Sean Monahan was good. Sam Bennett was good. T.J. Brodie was good. Dougie Hamilton was good. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Flame that had a bad game.

Barrie beat Sault Ste. Marie 4-1, and both Rasmus Andersson and Andrew Mangiapane had assists. Keegan Kanzig was +2 in his return to the Calgary Hitmen, though they lost 3-2 to the Oil Kings up in Edmonton. Brandon Hickey was even in Boston University’s 4-1 win over Northeastern.

“His pass on the first goal, his goal, they were great, they were offensive plays, but I also really liked his third period. He didn’t cough up the puck, he played the game the right way… Benny played us quite a game.” – Bob Hartley assessing Sam Bennett’s performance.

“You need to be able at least to even out that battle [against the Penguins power-play]. If you can be as good as their power-play, I think that you’ll have a good night, and our power-play was very good.” – Hartley, assessing his power-play.

Road trip! The Flames (5-9-1) kick off an eight-day, four-game road trip on Tuesday night when they head to the Sunshine State to take on the Florida Panthers. It’s a 5:30pm MT start against Jaromir Jagr and Co., so prepare accordingly.