Post-Game: Wild Western Night

It was Western Night down at the Saddledome this evening and it was a game replete with country music, adults wearing cowboy hats, and a game that turned into something akin to a showdown at the OK Corral by the time it was all over.

The Calgary Flames played 20 minutes of fabulous hockey and then played a scrambly game the rest of the way. Fortunately for them, an incomplete game was enough to beat the Detroit Red Wings in overtime by a 3-2 score. It wasn’t pretty, but they got what they needed in the Western Conference playoff race: two points.

Both teams got off to a sleepy start early on, with an early Tomas Tatar giveaway in Detroit’s end very nearly resulting in a Flames goal. Detroit seemed to find their footing earlier than Calgary, pressing a few times but being held back until Darren Helm waltzed into the zone and beat Brian Elliott with a wrist shot from just inside the blueline that hit the very top corner (glove-side) to make it 1-0. Detroit’s lead didn’t last very long, though: Andreas Athanasiou clipped T.J. Brodie with a high stick and just four seconds into the double minor, Versteeg beat Petr Mrazek off the face-off to tie the game.

The Flames took the lead before period’s end. Niklas Kronwall coughed up the puck in his own end and Matthew Tkachuk nabbed it and deked around Mrazek to make it 2-1.

Shots were 4-4 when Detroit scored, but ended up 17-9 Flames in the first period. The Flames trailed for all of 1:24 in the period.

The Red Wings were all over the Flames in the second period. Neither team scored, but Detroit had a bunch of really good looks – including a couple chances on a pair of early power plays. Shots were 14-2 Wings in the middle frame.

The third period was a lot more even, with the Flames hitting the net more often but Detroit generally having the puck more. The Red Wings pulled their goalie late and tied it up incredibly late in the game. Brian Elliott made a big initial save, but Tatar buried the rebound to make it 2-2 with just two seconds left. Shots were 9-8 in favour of Calgary.

So off to extra time they went and it was a wild, back and forth 3:56 of overtime. There were odd-man rushes in either direction, including a Backlund/Frolik two-on-one and a Gaudreau near-miss. Finally, Frolik sprung Mikael Backlund and Mark Giordano on another two-on-one and Backlund beat Mrazek to ice this one at 3-2.

Shots were 5-4 in overtime in favour of Detroit.

The Red Wings were probably the better team overall, but the Flames were opportunistic early on and seemed to roll with the punches throughout the game. They went down early and came back to tie it 84 seconds later. They gave up a goal with two seconds to go in regulation, then came back with a lot of energy in a wild overtime period.

Even when they’re obviously not clicking completely, the Flames have found ways to get points lately. Tonight was another such occasion.

Could it be anything else? Backlund’s goal, his 20th, won the game for the gents in red.

Elliott was primary reason they were in this game through the final 40 minutes (and overtime), making 27 stops in that span after a fairly pedestrian first period.

Beyond the goaltender, the 3M Line and the Giordano/Hamilton pairing were once again quite good. In other news: the sky is blue and water is wet.

The Flames both (a) lead the league in wins after giving up the first goal (17) and (b) are 25-0-1 when leading after 40 minutes.

Backlund maintains team lead in scoring (46 points), three points up on Johnny Gaudreau. He’s one point shy of his career-best season.

The Flames also match their win total from all of last season, hitting the 35 win mark.

“We had a good first and I think we out-chanced them, we had it seven-three or eight-three, whatever we had it… We thought ‘okay, now we’re just going to win,’ and I think that’s something we haven’t done on the road and that’s a little bit of a mental let-down that we need to address.” – Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan on his team’s performance.

The Flames magic number to clinch began the night at 16.5. Their win drops it to any combination of 15.5 Flames wins or Kings losses clinching a playoff berth for the local sports team.

The Flames (35-26-4) practice tomorrow, then are back in action on Sunday for a matinee game against the New York Islanders at the Saddledome.