Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Calgary Flames out-shot the Dallas Stars handily on Thursday night at the Saddledome. But the Stars were equal parts opportunistic and tactical with their offensive attacks in this game. The Flames carried play, but the Stars pounced on every defensive lapse the Flames made at key moments.
Dallas beat the Flames by a 5-2 score to snap the Flames’ winning streak at four games.
The rundown
The Flames looked really fast and sharp early in this game, and the Stars looked like a team that barely held on to beat Edmonton the night before. The Flames had a ton of zone time and good offensive looks.
But just shy of midway through the period, Dallas woke up and opened the scoring.
About seven minutes into the period, the Stars’ Thomas Harley carried the puck into the offensive zone as the Flames changed up some of their forwards. Harley handed the puck off and circled back to the neutral zone, but additional Stars entered the zone as the Flames tried to figure out defensive coverage. Amidst this confusion, Mikko Rantanen passed to Roope Hintz (who had crept between Rasmus Andersson and Kevin Bahl) and he fired the puck past Dustin Wolf to make it 1-0 Stars.
The Flames nearly tied the game up, as a pass from Nazem Kadri to Connor Zary went in off Zary’s skate. But after a Situation Room review, it was judged to have been directed in with a distinct kicking motion and was disallowed.
First period shots were 13-11 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 9-7 Flames (high-danger chances were 6-3 Flames).
The Flames almost tied the game again early in the second period. With Joel Farabee battling out front, Mikael Backlund fed Blake Coleman in the slot and he fired the puck past Casey DeSmith to make it 1-1. But this goal was challenged for goalie interference, and it was decided after the review that Farabee had made incidental contact in the crease with DeSmith before Coleman’s shot, so the goal was disallowed.
Midway through the second, the Flames managed to score – and this one wasn’t called back, despite Martin Pospisil battling around the crease with a couple Stars defenders. Kadri had the puck behind the net, opted to hold onto the puck and circled out front and flung the puck over DeSmith’s shoulder to tie the game at 1-1.
But the Stars drove back after that. Wyatt Johnston scored on a great individual effort, absolutely blowing by Daniil Miromanov beside the Flames net and getting a shot on Wolf. Wolf made a nice save, but then Johnston beat Jake Bean to the loose rebound and fired the puck over top of Wolf to make it 2-1 Stars.
1:16 later, Dallas scored again. This time, the Flames defenders got bunched up along the wall defending a Stars rush into the zone. Mason Marchment gathered the puck and fed Mikael Granlund in front of the net, and he fired the puck past Wolf to make it 3-1 Stars.
Second period shots were 18-5 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 14-13 Flames (high-danger chances were 6-5 Stars).
Early in the third period, on a power play carried over from the second period, the Flames inched closer. Kadri made a nice shot from just past the face-off dot to DeSmith’s left, and the shot seemed to fool the Stars netminder to cut their lead to 3-2. (Kadri was moving backwards when he shot and DeSmith was at the edge of his crease, so perhaps he lost the net?)
Midway through the third period, though, the Flames lost Connor Zary to an injury as Rantanen lost an edge along the boards and slid into Zary from behind, causing him to fall backwards (and his left leg to fold under him). You don’t really need to see any clips of the incident: it wasn’t particularly dirty or predatory, just a terrible accident.
The Flames pressed for basically the entire third period. But Rantanen scored on their second shot of the period, as Wolf made the initial stop on Hintz but Rantanen buried the rebound. That made it a 4-2 game.
Dallas added an empty-netter from Duchene to make it 5-2 Stars.
Third period shots were 17-4 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 22-5 Flames (high-danger chances were 8-3 Flames).
Why the Flames lost
The Flames did a great job generating chances and really carried play well. But their defensive details at key moments were pretty rough. Look at Dallas’ first four goals: there are pretty big lapses in coverage on each of those goals that allowed Dallas some great high-quality chances. And they’re a really talented group that tends to take advantage of those chances.
Red Warrior
Let’s give it to Kadri, who scored twice.
Turning point
The Flames tied this game in the second period, then allowed two goals over the span of 1:16. That was that.
This and that
Mikael Backlund returned to the Flames lineup after missing six games. Yegor Sharangovich was bumped to the press box as a consequence.
This was the 12th and final game the Flames will wear their black (Blasty) alternate jersey. They’re 7-5-0 this season in black.
Up next
The Flames (34-26-11) are headed back on the road. They visit the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place for the season’s final Battle of Alberta on Saturday night.
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