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The Calgary Flames headed to Ottawa on a high after sweeping a four game homestand. Unfortunately, that streak screeched to a halt against the Senators.
The Flames just couldn’t get out of their own way and were the second-best team, by a decent margin, in a 4-3 road loss to the Senators to kick off a four game eastern road swing.
The rundown
The Senators had a ton of energy early in this game, really forechecking well and forcing the Flames into tough situations with their speed and physicality. While the Senators had some good chances early, Dustin Wolf was sharp in net.
The Flames managed to open the scoring midway through the opening period on the power play. The Flames cycled the puck down below the goal line, and Matt Coronato found Jonathan Huberdeau in front and he beat Anton Forsberg to make it 1-0 Flames.
The Flames nearly made it 2-0 shortly afterwards, as MacKenzie Weegar fired a puck into the net… but the goal was immediately waved off on the ice due to goaltender interference after Justin Kirkland made contact with Forsberg. The Flames challenged the ruling after the TV timeout, but the on-ice ruling was upheld the Senators got a power play.
Good news: the Senators didn’t score on the resulting power play. Bad news: they scored eight seconds after the delay-of-game call expired, as Ridly Greig made a nice pass through the net-front area to Adam Gaudette, parked at the back door, and Gaudette fired into the open net behind Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.
Kevin Bahl immediately fired the puck over the glass following the ensuing face-off, sending the Flames to another penalty kill. A Brady Tkachuk goal was challenged and wiped out after it was found that Drake Batherson backed into Wolf in the crease immediately before Tkachuk’s shot.
First period shots were 11-9 Senators. 5v5 chances 7-2 Senators, high-dangers 3-1 Senators.
The Senators got another power play after Andrei Kuzmenko was called for high-sticking while trying to retrieve a puck in the defensive zone. On the resulting power play, Batherson (and perhaps also Tkachuk) deflected a Jake Sanderson point shot past Wolf to give the Senators a 2-1 lead.
The Flames were on their heels for a bit after the second Ottawa goal and got a bit scrambly in their own end, and Ottawa took advantage to grab an insurance marker. Sanderson made a nice play, firing the puck to Greig beside the slot area rather than on net. This got everyone in a white sweater – Wolf and his defenders – a bit off-kilter, and that allowed Cole Reinhardt all sorts of time and space to fire a Greig pass into the Flames net to make it 3-1 Ottawa.
But the Flames bounced back and answered with a goal before the end of the period. Coronato fired a shot from in-close on Forsberg. The Ottawa netminder made the initial save, but defender Nick Jensen’s clearing attempt went right onto the stick of Yegor Sharangovich, and he fired the puck right into the net to cut Ottawa’s lead to 3-2.
Second period shots were 12-8 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 10-9 Flames (high-dangers were 4-2 Flames).
31 seconds into the third period, Sharangovich was called for elbowing. On the resulting power play, Tkachuk found some quiet ice in the slot area and buried a feed from Batherson past Wolf to give the Senators a 4-2 lead.
The Flames tried to battle back for the rest of the third period, but couldn’t get much going. They pulled Wolf for the extra attacker and Nazem Kadri scored to cut the Senators’ lead to 4-3.
But it was too little, too late, and the Senators held on for the 4-3 win.
Third period shots were 9-6 Senators. Five-on-five scoring chances were 2-2 (high-dangers were 1-0 Flames).
Why the Flames lost
Flames head coach Ryan Huska noted after Saturday afternoon’s win that he felt his team wasn’t giving the other team too many opportunities during their stretch of strong play at home. Unfortunately, that tendency didn’t follow them on the road, as they just seemed to make too many puck management mistakes, bad defensive reads, and too many minor penalties in this game. As a result, they just didn’t seem like they got their game going fully against the Senators.
In short: the Flames’ execution was off as a group, and they couldn’t overcome it.
Red Warrior
Let’s give a shout-out to the Coronato, Backlund and Sharangovich line, who combined for a good chunk of the Flames’ shots. The Flames didn’t have a ton going on in this game, but that trio was very engaged.
Turning point
There were a few moments that sapped the Flames’ momentum on this occasion, but let’s single out the early third period power play goal by Tkachuk. The Flames entered the third period down a goal, but some poor discipline really killed their ability to battle back in this game.
This and that
Joel Hanley left the game early in the third period after taking a shot off his left wrist.
This was the fourth game this season the Flames have allowed multiple power play goals against. They’ve lost three of those games – they managed to overcome that obstacle in the season-opener in Vancouver.
Up next
The Flames (12-7-3) continue their road trip on Wednesday night when they visit the Detroit Red Wings.
