Post-Game Wrap-Up: Flames drop opener to Avalanche

The Calgary Flames got off to a rough start to their 2019-20 season on Thursday evening in Denver, Colorado. They got down early and never had a lead en route to a 5-3 setback to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.

The Flames weren’t very good in the opening period. How not good? They took a penalty 10 seconds into the game, forcing netminder David Rittich to perform acts of heroism to keep them in the game. The Flames killed the opening penalty, but the second Colorado power play resulted in a goal.

Samuel Girard’s point shot was deflected once by Sam Bennett, again by Joonas Donskoi, and went past Rittich (who was being screened by Valeri Nichushkin) to make it 1-0 Avalanche. Nothing Rittich could do there.

The Flames drew a couple penalties and (eventually) cashed in. They didn’t score on their first advantage of a brief five-on-three, but Rittich sprung the top line on an odd-man rush with a head’s up pass. Some tic-tac-toe passing later and Sean Monahan’s pass to the net-front (intended for Elias Lindholm) was deflected past Philipp Grubauer by Donskoi. That tied it up at 1-1.

But the Avalanche got their lead back late in the period. Gabriel Landeskog swatted an errant pass out of the air in the neutral zone. He skated into the Flames zone and made a pass through three Flames players to Mikko Rananten, who beat Rittich with a backhand shot to go up 2-1. Rittich protested that Landeskog knocked it down with a high stick, but the play wasn’t reviewable – and he still beat out three Flames with his pass…

Shots were 14-3 Avalanche and scoring chances 9-4 Avalanche in the opening 20 minutes.

Early in the second period the Flames drew back even. TJ Brodie drew a penalty. On the ensuing PP, the initial shot off a face-off was stopped by Grubauer, but Monahan grabbed the loose puck and sent it to a wide open Johnny Gaudreau at the other side of the slot for a wrister that made it 2-2.

But the Avalanche scored a couple goals to grab hold of this one. Oliver Kylington took a penalty. While the Avalanche didn’t score on the man advantage, they scored immediately after it expired after J.T. Compher converted a really nice cross-zone pass from Matt Calvert – again, through the guts of the Flames defense – to make it 3-2 Colorado.

The Flames took another penalty and off the face-off, Rantenen buried a one-timer pass from Nathan MacKinnon just nine seconds into the PP to make it a 4-2 lead for the home team.

But as they were announcing that goal, Mark Giordano pinched, took a pass from Sam Bennett and went top corner on Grubauer to cut the lead to 4-3.

Shots were 13-12 Flames and chances 10-8 Flames in the second.

Both teams had their looks in the third period. The Flames pulled Rittich for the extra attacker and Donskoi potted the empty-netter with 1:09 remaining in regulation to cement Colorado’s victory by a 5-3 score.

Shots were 14-6 Flames in the third period, while chances were 7-5 Flames.

The Flames were lacking in three areas:

They gave Colorado seven power plays. They made way too many unforced errors with the puck, particularly a few wonky passes in the offensive zone to… nobody. And they allowed the Avalanche to connect on way too many nice passes in their own end, even when their defenders out-numbered Colorado’s attackers.

It wasn’t a good game for the visitors.

We’ve gotta go with Rittich, if only for that opening period barrage the poor guy faced. Rittich was superb in net and held the Flames in the game during an opening segment where it looked like the other 18 players on the bench had forgotten that this game counted. It’s hard to fault him on the four goals against – PP goal with a screen and double deflection, rising backhander from a sniper, back-door tap-in off a strong pass, and PP one-timer.

Giordano, Gaudreau, Monahan and Lindholm all had decent nights as well.

The Flames drew even in the second period, but a pair of Colorado goals a few minutes apart – one right after an Avalanche PP, one during a PP – sapped the team’s momentum and put them on their heels.

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

Milan Lucic took 17 minutes in penalties after Austin Czarnik got crunched by Nikita Zadorov. Czarnik left the game briefly, but returned. He only ended up playing 3:56 overall.

Per Natural Stat Trick: Colorado generated 13 scoring chances on their power plays. Calgary? Just three.

The Flames fly back home tonight. They practice tomorrow in preparation for their home opener on Saturday night against the hated Vancouver Canucks.

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