Post-Game Wrap-Up: an Avalanche of action

Sometimes weeknight games are sleepy affairs, a dull 60 minutes of hockey to endure. Monday night’s game between the Calgary Flames and the Colorado Avalanche was just awesome to behold. Both teams played well. There wasn’t any ugliness, just pure hockey action. The Flames went toe-to-toe with the Avalanche and won 5-4 in overtime.

Colorado was very fast and sharp in the opening period and caught the Flames on their heels a bit. Five minutes in, a series of quick passes sprang Colorado into the Flames zone. Joonas Donskoi’s pass bounced over Dillon Dube’s stick and was buried by pinching defender Ryan Graves to make it 1-0 Colorado.

Shots were 10-9 Flames in the first period, but scoring chances were 12-5 Avalanche. The Flames were fortunate not to give up more goals.

Midway through the second period, the Flames tied things up. Dube chased down a loose puck in the offensive zone and cycled it to point. Oliver Kylington’s shot was tipped by Derek Ryan past Pavel Francouz (and a Milan Lucic screen) to tie the game at 1-1.

31 seconds later, though, the Avalanche retook the lead. The initial Graves point shot was stopped by Rittich, but Valeri Nichushkin cleaned up the rebound to give the home side a 2-1 lead.

But late in the period, the Flames drew back even (again). Seven seconds into a power play drawn by Johnny Gaudreau, off a face-off win, Matthew Tkachuk deflected a Mark Giordano point shot past Francouz to make it 2-2.

Shots were 12-10 Avalanche and scoring chances 7-7 in the second period.

The third period was wild.

The Flames took the lead 12 seconds into the period. Elias Lindholm forced a turnover in the Avalanche zone along the boards. Andrew Mangiapane and Tkachuk passed quickly between them, ending with a Mangiapane wrister that beat Francouz to make it 3-2 Flames.

A little bit later the Flames got a fourth line goal, as a Mark Jankowski flip pass Tobias Rieder and Michael Frolik into offensive zone. Frolik buried a slick Rieder feed to make it 4-2 Flames.

But the game got scrambley for a couple shifts, as Nathan MacKinnon created a turnover in the neutral zone and then spun off a Travis Hamonic check in the defensive zone and beat Rittich short-side to cut the lead to 4-3 Flames.

Later on the Avalanche tied it up, as on a two-on-two rush into Flames end, Donskoi took a feed from MacKinnon and beat Rittich (who was moving too far to his right laterally) to make it 4-4.

Shots were 11-11 and scoring chances 11-5 Avalanche in the third period.

Chances went both ways in a pretty eventful overtime. But Giordano stole a puck in the defensive zone with a poke check and a Dube pass sprang Sean Monahan for a drive to the net. He put the puck past Francouz to give the Flames a 5-4 overtime triumph.

This was a game the Flames would’ve lost, by several goals, a month ago. But the Flames played smart hockey for the most part. When they made mistakes, they scrambled back and didn’t allow them to snowball on them. When they got scored on, they scrambled back and made adjustments.

Most of all, this was a game where the Flames got contributions from virtually everybody. They got five on five goals from three of their four lines. They got good penalty killing. They got a key power play goal to tie the game in the second period. They got pretty good goaltending from the NHL’s most-used goaltender.

Playing against a team that has absolutely owned them over the past year, the Flames found ways to stop the bleeding when they had to rather than letting things escalate. It’s a sign of maturity, and it’s a sign of a team that may have actually, finally, turned the corner this season.

Monahan led the Flames with five shots and scored the OT winner, so let’s tip our collective caps to him.

But a lot of players had good games. Multi-point efforts were had by Dube, Lindholm, Tkachuk and Giordano.

I’m gonna cheat a bit here, but hear me out: the third period was the turning point. Sure, the Flames blew a two goal lead on the road. But they didn’t let MacKinnon take over the game, they didn’t break formation in their own end, and they didn’t take any stupid penalties to give Colorado chances to swing the game.

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.

Tkachuk’s goal was his 200th career point.

The Flames (16-12-4) immediately head to Arizona. They face the Coyotes tomorrow night to polish off this back-to-back.

Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters is no fuss, no fillers. We make our signature chicken and other menu items 100% fresh from scratch. After 50 years, we are still proudly keeping it authentic and perfectly seasoned as Mary Brown herself would have done it. We take our signature chicken with serious dedication but, hey, we still know how to have fun with it — just try our Chicken Pop-Ins. Visit us to explore all our menu options and find a location near you.