On Friday night in Calgary, the Flames played a strong, if imperfect, game of hockey. Playing against the top team in the National Hockey League, they couldn’t quite batten down the hatches defensively minimize mistakes with the puck. On Tuesday night in Boston, the Flames got a do-over, and out-played the Boston Bruins in their own rink.
It was, to be honest, their best game of the entire season to this point.
“I thought it was an excellent effort by our guys,” said Flames interim head coach Geoff Ward. “We played with an awful lot of composure. This is a hard building to play in but I thought we came in and did a really good job in terms of staying focused. We did a really good job of being emotionally attached to the game but not being out of control emotionally. I thought we did a really good job in our end, kept pucks moving forward. All in all it was a really good effort by our team.”
The Flames never trailed in this game. The game was tied for just shy of 15 minutes and the Flames led for the other 45. Until Tuesday, Boston had two regulation losses at home in the entire season.
The Flames were out-chanced overall by a 27-18 margin, but they held Boston to just eight high-danger chances. When good teams aren’t allowed to run and gun, they won’t win a lot. The Flames played a structured, composed road game and picked up two crucial points. They’re now 19-13-2 on the road – only Colorado, Washington and Tampa Bay have more wins away from home.
With a pair of goals, Sean Monahan tied Hakan Loob and Guy Chouinard with 193 goals – 9th in franchise history. He passed Lanny McDonald for sole possession of 17th in franchise history in points.
Also, David Rittich did this. We’re not quite sure why.
