Post-Game Wrap-Up: Sharks take bite out of Flames

The Calgary Flames headed into their home date on Tuesday night with the San Jose Sharks hoping to hit the reset button. Instead, life may have become a tad more complicated. They lost a 3-1 decision to the Sharks, but they also lost captain Mark Giordano to a injury of unspecified severity.

The opening period was fairly nondescript. Neither team was superb, though the Flames had the easy lead in zone time and puck possession. Shots were 16-9 Flames and scoring chances 11-8 Flames.

The Flames opened the scoring early in the second period on a carryover power play from a penalty Mikael Backlund drew late in the first period. On one hand, the Flames gave up a three-on-one rush. But the Sharks missed the net entirely and on the rush the other way, Elias Lindholm found Johnny Gaudreau (with a snazzy give-and-go) for a back door tap-in to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

But the Sharks pushed back and took over the period. A few minutes later, the Sharks used their speed to get the Flames to back into their zone. That gave Brent Burns a shooting lane and he learned into a slapper, beating David Rittich inside the post to make it a 1-1 hockey game.

The Sharks scored again to take the lead. An initial rush chance was stopped by Rittich. But the Flames couldn’t retrieve the puck and the Sharks got a second chance that they didn’t squander. Barclay Goodrow found Evander Kane streaking towards the net, and a quick pass and shoot later the visitors had a 2-1 lead.

Shots were 11-10 Flames and scoring chances 10-6 Sharks in the second period.

The Flames seemed a bit disjointed in the third period. Kevin Labanc extended San Jose’s lead by driving the slot and beating Rittich with a back-hand shot to make it 3-1 for the visitors.

Shots were 7-4 Sharks and scoring chances 7-4 Sharks in the third period.

Honestly? Same old, same old.

Their execution wasn’t great with the puck and they couldn’t translate their early zone time into enough high octane scoring chances. They were too leaky defensively, giving the Sharks a few too many good looks. Heck, the Flames were out-scored 3-0 at even strength.

They couldn’t make hay while the sun was shining, and it ended up costing them a pair of sorely-needed points.

Let’s go with Tkachuk, who was full of energy early on and put a lot of rubber on the net.

Labanc’s insurance marker was a back-breaker. When the Sharks were nursing a one goal lead, you could imagine perhaps a bounce going Calgary’s way and giving them a chance to get the tying goal. Not so much with a two goal lead and the Sharks doing the best to clog up the ice.

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

Milan Lucic fought Barclay Goodrow late in the first period. Goodrow was upset that Lucic hit Evander Kane, so that happened.

Giordano left the game late in the second period with a lower body injury after falling awkwardly during a shot attempt. He didn’t return.

The Flames have 60 points. A 95 point playoff pace through 54 games prorates to 62.5 points, so they’re 2.5 points off a likely playoff pace with 28 games to go.

The Flames (27-21-6) are back in action on Thursday evening when they host the Nashville Predators.