Post-Game Wrap-Up: Lightning shock Flames

For the fourth consecutive game, the Calgary Flames played a pretty solid road game on Saturday afternoon. But against the Tampa Bay Lightning they took a few too many penalties and had a few too many lapses, similar to their home effort against Boston a few weeks back. They lost 4-3 in Tampa Bay in the fourth game of their five game road trip.

The Flames were on their heels but defended well for much of the first period. Tampa Bay opened the scoring with Dillon Dube in the penalty box for a neutral zone penalty. Tyler Johnson redirected a Mikhail Sergachev shot past David Rittich to make it 1-0 Lightning.

Shots were 13-6 Lightning and chances 6-5 Lightning in first period.

The second period was eventful. Tampa extended their lead to two goals with Sean Monahan in the penalty box. A nice passing sequence by the home side ended with Ondrej Palat beating Rittich (with a deflection off Derek Forbort) to make it 2-0 Tampa.

The Flames had a power play later in the period but Tampa scored. After an initial shorthanded chance was stopped, Yanni Gourde buried a subsequent chance to make it 3-0 Lightning.

But the Flames rallied back. First, Andrew Mangiapane’s shot beat Andrei Vasilevskiy five-hole to cut the lead to 3-1 Tampa.

Shortly after, Elias Lindholm leaned into a pass and shot and that effort went between Vasilevskiy’s legs to cut the lead to 3-2 Tampa.

But before the end of the period, Blake Coleman put a pass past Noah Hanifin and Alex Killorn beat Rittich to extent the home side’s lead to 4-2.

Shots were 14-10 Lightning and scoring chances 5-4 Lightning in the second period.

Tampa defended well in most of the third period, but the Flames pressed late and scored on the power play to cut the lead to 4-3. Lindholm found Sean Monahan in the slot with a quick pass and shoot play that beat Vasilevskiy.

But that’s as close as Calgary would get. Shots were 8-6 Lightning and scoring chances 9-5 Lightning in the third period.

Honestly, if your special teams units get out-scored 3-1 you won’t win a lot. The Flames were pretty effective at bottling up Tampa’s skill players, but their special teams weren’t up to snuff and the few defensive lapses they had at even strength ended up being costly.

It was a B+ effort, but they needed an A or A- one to beat Tampa and they couldn’t quite muster it.

In a game where the Flames didn’t put up a ton of shots, Mikael Backlund led with four. His whole line was sharp once again, as they have been for the better part of February.

The shorthanded goal by Gourde was a back-breaker.

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

The Flames have 73 points. A 95 point playoff pace through 66 games pro-rates to 76.5 points, so they’re 3.5 points off a likely playoff pace with 16 games to go.

The Flames (33-26-7) are headed to Sunrise, Florida. They face the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon.