Postgame: Back on the Winning Side

The Calgary Flames made it a little difficult on themselves Friday night in Ottawa, but three second period goals was enough for the Flames to snap a four game losing skid and take a 3-2 win over the Senators.  The Flames allowed a pair of goals in the second period as the Sens put their full court press on, but it’s a win and the Flames can move on to Toronto with a win.

A fairly meh first period saw no scoring and saw the Flames outshot 14-8 by the Sens, thanks in large part to a couple powerplay opportunities.  Really, it was one of those "nothing to see here" periods, and neither team controlled the play.  Kent had scoring chances 6-3 in favor of the Sens.

The second period was a much different story, as the Flames came out and worked an inferior hockey team, something they should have done in the opening frame.  Calgary opened the scoring shortly after a powerplay chance expired, as David Moss went hard to the net and re-directed a Rene Bourque shot past Brian Elliott at 5:32.  It was Moss, who’s really played some strong hockey the last while, who put the Flames up by a pair at 7:55.  His eighth of the season was a nice shot with players going hard to the net and was an exclamation mark on a really strong start to the period.  Calgary would score once more before the second period would let out, as Ales Kotalik got in on the action, pinballing a powerplay point shot past Elliott with 17 seconds remaining.  Calgary was dominant, with scoring chances 7-3.

A chasing Senators team found a way back into this game in the third period, albeit probably a little late.  Nick Foligno put home his seventh of the season at 8:56 to give Ottawa some life, and it seemed to work, as the home side started to buzz…which is expected with the team throwing everything into the offensive attack.  Late in the frame, Milan Michalek would score coming off the side boards to get the Sens within one, but that’s as close as they’d get.  As they should have, the Flames take a win in Ottawa; the final score ends up 3-2.

…why the Flames won?  Well, they dominated the second period, scored three goals, and that’s all they’d need.  Sometimes you need a "good 60 minute effort" to win a hockey game, but against a brutal team like the Sens, one period like that is enough.  The Flames hung on in the third period, and Henrik Karlsson played all right to get the win.

Hey, I’ll go against the grain a little bit here: Adam Pardy.  He played 23:04 and finished on the plus side on the scoring chance count.  He was asked to fill a larger role on the Flames blueline with the abscence of Robyn Regehr thanks to a sore knee.  Pardy stepped up, played some strong hockey alongside Cory Sarich, and you have to tip your hat to him.  There’s no word on if Regehr will play Saturday in Toronto, so if he doesn’t, Pardy will have to put in a similar effort.

Hey, two points is two points, and that’s the only thing that matters to the current group of Flames players.  As cynical as we all are, for good reason, you’ve gotta give them credit…since we started hearing this "win two of three" thing, they’ve done it.  Over their last nine games, the Flames have 12 points, which puts them at .666 clip of winning.  Can it continue for 38 more games? Eh, no, probably not.  But I thought I’d point it out.