Quip and Quotes: Flames beat Kings 1-0
By Ryan Pike
5 years agoThe Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings by a 1-0 score on Saturday night. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.
Two big kills at a key time
You could be forgiven if you saw the Flames nursing a 1-0 lead in the third period and got a bit nervous. Recent games against the Kings have been tight-checking and low-scoring, but the Flames have also become accustomed to three-point games against their divisional foes.
A trip to overtime was prevented by David Rittich’s strong play and a couple very tidy penalty kills late in regulation. Following the game, head coach Bill Peters praised his team’s defensive acumen – and his penalty killers for their key work late in the game.
I thought we did a good job moving the puck early. And then obviously in the third we had to kill those two penalties. Kudos to the penalty killers for doing a good job. I thought they did a real good job on the forecheck and standing at our line. You know what? It was gut check time, and our guys responded.
A one goal game
The Flames scored just once in this game and it came from a rather unusual source: blueliner Travis Hamonic, on an offensive rush initiated by the fourth line. Following the game Hamonic directed some credit for his goal to teammate Garnet Hathaway, who had a big screen on Kings netminder Jack Campbell to the point where Campbell barely reacted to Hamonic’s shot before the red light went on behind him.
“It was good job by Hath, the goalie didn’t see anything,” said Hamonic. “That maybe gets overlooked, but Hath took his eyes right away. I think as the game went on, they had their pushes in the second and a bit in the third. But we held strong and pushed back, too. It was a pretty good win by our team.”
Man of the hour
And finally, a word from Big Save Dave himself.
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