The Calgary Flames headed into Sunday’s game with the Carolina Hurricanes desperately needing to snap their goal-scoring drought and to get a win to earn some points in the jam-packed Western Conference playoff race. Well, mission half-accomplished, we suppose?

The Flames scored a goal for the first time in three games, and managed to grind out a huge point by way of a 2-1 overtime loss to the Hurricanes.

The Flames had good shape to their game in the first period – they looked like a five man unit – but they were on their heels defending for much of the first period. The Flames didn’t register their first shot until 17 minutes into this game. They didn’t give up too many grade-A chances, but they barely generated anything offensively.

First period shots were 12-1 Hurricanes. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 7-5 Hurricanes (high-danger chances were 2-1 Hurricanes).

The second period was much better. The Flames had excellent pushback and dominated possession for the first half of the period. However, they could not score.

Late in the period, the Hurricanes finally solved Dustin Wolf.

Nazem Kadri was knocked down inside the offensive blueline, and felt he had been fouled. As he protested to the officials, the Hurricanes headed up ice.  Jackson Blake threw the puck to Jaccob Slavin, who snuck past Kevin Bahl on the rush and redirected the puck past Wolf. That made it 1-0 Hurricanes.

Second period shots were 8-7 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 10-6 Hurricanes (high-danger chances were 9-0 Hurricanes).

The third period was pretty back and forth, and the Flames took advantage of a special teams opportunity to draw even. Taylor Hall and Sebastian Aho took successive minors, giving the Flames a five-on-three advantage. They attacked, and just after Hall’s penalty expired, Kadri blasted a shot from Pyotr Kochetkov’s left that ramped up the goaltender’s padding and into the Carolina net to tie the game at 1-1.

The Hurricanes pressed after the game got tied up, and the Flames struggled to get much going offensively, but they defended fairly well.

The Hurricanes got a four-minute power play off a sequence where Blake Coleman high-sticked Jordan Martinook and Joel Hanley ended up fighting Andrei Svechnikov off a net-front scrum. The Flames had to scramble around, but a combination of sticks in lanes and smart shot-blocking killed off the penalty and sent the game to extra time.

Third period shots were 10-7 Hurricanes. Five-on-five scoring chances were 11-5 Hurricanes (high-danger chances were 6-2 Hurricanes).

In overtime, the game went back and forth, with Carolina briefly thinking they scored after one of their players poked the puck into the Flames net from underneath Wolf’s glove.

But the Hurricanes managed to strand the Flames on the ice for awhile, and that led to an Aho one-timer shot that found the top corner past Wolf to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 overtime victory.

Were the Flames lousy? No. Were they great? No. They were fine. They definitely got bailed out by their goaltender at key times and they didn’t generate enough offensively at five-on-five, but they did a superb job on their special teams, managing to hold a pretty good Hurricanes power play off the board. The road team obviously knew that this game was huge, and they battled throughout this game. It wasn’t pretty at times, and they definitely would’ve preferred two points, but they worked hard for their point on this occasion.

We’re gonna default to the goalie. Wolf was superb for the Flames, making big saves at big times. Honourable mention to Kevin Bahl and Joel Hanley, who were shot-blocking machines at key times. Bahl blocked a shot with his head late in the game to keep it tied at 1-1.

Admit it, you were worried when the Flames were given a four minute penalty for high-sticking with just over four minutes left in regulation. In the version of reality where the Flames lose in regulation, the double-minor penalty kill is the reason. But the Flames’ killers stepped up big-time, and this PK probably earned them the point.

Nazem Kadri’s third period goal ended a stretch of 171:34 between Flames goals, the fourth-longest drought in franchise history (per Sportsnet Stats). The longest stretch, 192:42, was in November 2002.

Joel Farabee blocked a shot with his hand in the first period. He briefly left the game but returned for the second period. Kevin Bahl blocked a shot with his head in the third period. He returned to the Flames bench for overtime.

The Flames (28-23-9) continue their road trip on Tuesday night when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers.

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