Quotable: the Flames beat the Canadiens 5-2
By Ryan Pike
3 years agoIn the two of three games that the Calgary Flames need to win in regulation to have a shot at the playoffs… the Flames won in regulation again! They beat the Montreal Canadiens by a 5-2 score.
Here are some selected quotes from the post-game media addresses.
Darryl Sutter
Sutter seems to be doing his best to keep his cards close to his vest, and especially trying not to get too excited. He downplayed discussion about how well the team’s played in these last few games with Montreal.
Well it’s interesting you guys are all saying how close we are and how important the games are. But two weeks ago, you were saying they weren’t important. So we’ll just keep it in house and go about our business.
The Flames’ magic number is down to 12.5 – the combination of Calgary wins and Montreal losses resulting in Flames playoff berth. Their tragic number is 7.5 – the combination of Montreal wins and Calgary losses resulting in the Flames being eliminated from post-season contention.
The Flames have nine games left: Edmonton (2), Montreal (1), Ottawa (1), Vancouver (4) and Winnipeg (1). The Canadiens have 10 games left: Calgary (1), Edmonton (2), Ottawa (2), Toronto (4) and Winnipeg (1)
Johnny Gaudreau
Gaudreau commented on the team’s mood following two big wins.
A little excited after the game, but you know, move on. We’re nowhere close to where we want to be, so can’t get our hopes up too too much.
Gaudreau’s two goals gave him 168 with the Flames, moving him past Joel Otto into sole possession of 13th in franchise history.
Derek Ryan
Ryan commented on Gaudreau’s late first period goal to tie the game at 1-1.
It was huge. I would say it’s similar to Mangy’s power play goal in the last game where you get that goal in the last couple minutes of the period where you’re kind of on your heels a little bit. Then all of a sudden you feel good about yourselves heading into the locker room. So, huge. Hockey’s a game of momentum and those goals are definitely speaking toward that.
Mark Giordano
The Flames played most of the game with five defensemen due to an early injury to Noah Hanifin – Sutter had no update on his status post-game. Giordano praised the remaining blueliners for how well they played in Hanifin’s absence.
Gotta give guys like Stoney, Ras, and Juuso a lot of credit because they stepped up and played big minutes tonight. We kept our shifts short and that’s all you can do. It was a hard-fought game.
Tanev played 28:01, Giordano played 26:59, Andersson 21:36, Stone 20:46 and Valimaki 20:19.
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