The Calgary Flames headed into Kanata, Ontario on Monday night looking to bounce back from a flat offensive effort against Toronto on Saturday. They weren’t shut out, but they couldn’t translate zone time into quality chances or, unfortunately, many goals. They skated to a 2-1 loss against the Ottawa Senators to crash back to the .500 mark more than halfway through the truncated 2020-21 season.

The rundown

The Senators opened the scoring in the first period. After the Flames pressed for awhile, Mark Giordano got caught pinching at the offensive blueline. That led to a two-on-one with Rasmus Andersson defending Clark Bishop and puck-carrier Ryan Dzingel. Dzingel used Bishop as a decoy and beat Jacob Markstrom high to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

Shots were 13-12 Flames and scoring chances 8-4 Senators in the first period.

The Flames pressed in the second period, got some good looks, but just couldn’t bury anything past Filip Gustavsson.

Murray Pam

@Pammerhockey

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Second period ends with Milan Lucic slamming the bench door and tossing his stick down the corridor. #Flames backup David Rittich was fortunate to get out of the way.

12:34 AM · Mar 23, 2021

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Shots were 13-4 Flames and scoring chances 9-4 Flames in the second period.

The Flames pressed in the third period and just when it seemed like they’d get shut out, again, they didn’t. Milan Lucic sprang Johnny Gaudreau into the offensive zone with a nice outlet pass and Gaudreau beat Gustavsson to tie the game at 1-1.

But a few minutes later, Chris Tierney jammed in a rebound off a point shot by Mike Reilly to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead. That’s how the game ended.

Shots were 10-7 Flames and scoring chances 6-6 in the third period.

Why the Flames lost

Well, they had defensive lapses that Ottawa jumped all over. And while they peppered Ottawa’s net with shots, the disconnect between the quality and quantity of their scoring chances was pretty stark. Gustavsson saw a lot of the shots and his defenders did a nice job minimizing second chances.

Red Warrior

Gaudreau had the lone goal, so let’s go with him.

The turning point

Tierney’s go-ahead goal, just 2:30 after the Flames pulled even, was a back-breaker.

The numbers

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.

	Corsi For%	O-Zone Face-Off%	Game Score
Tkachuk	74.1	72.7	0.680
Lindholm	69.0	80.0	-0.190
Tanev	68.8	78.6	0.770
Hanifin	68.4	78.6	1.370
Valimaki	67.9	100	1.770
Nesterov	66.7	100	1.950
Dube	65.6	72.7	0.490
Mangiapane	60.7	60.0	-0.310
Backlund	58.6	60.0	0.460
Bennett	55.6	81.8	-0.440
Lucic	54.8	60.0	0.980
Leivo	54.6	83.3	0.280
Ryan	53.3	83.3	0.200
Monahan	52.6	75.0	0.050
Gaudreau	52.4	81.8	0.780
Andersson	45.5	61.5	-1.880
Giordano	42.9	61.5	-1.810
Rinaldo	42.9	83.3	-0.140
Markstrom	—	—	-0.250
Rittich	—	—	—

This and that

Pat Steinberg

@Fan960Steinberg

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Johnny Gaudreau scores his first five-on-five goal in 20 games to tie the game 1-1 late in Ottawa. It also snaps a stretch of 142:21 without a goal for Calgary going back to Friday night in Toronto. #Flames

1:17 AM · Mar 23, 2021

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