The Calgary Flames were pretty good on Friday night. But they were just bad enough in key moments to drop a very close 3-2 decision to the Edmonton Oilers. The club is now 5-7-0 under Darryl Sutter, having lost seven of their last nine games after winning their first three after his arrival.
Here are some selected quotes from the post-game media addresses.
Matthew Tkachuk
Tkachuk was all over the game, with two penalties and a nice goal to give the Flames a 2-1 lead. Following the game, he commented on the club letting this one slip away.
The difference is that, and it’s happened a couple times against these guys in this rink, it’s an even game and they score late. They come out of here with two and we come out of here with absolutely nothing.
Darryl Sutter
Sutter provided his assessment of the 60 minutes of action in Edmonton.
I think it was pretty even. Got opportunities to go ahead or tie it up, but didn’t. The power play goal, that’s a face-off goal. I’m not so sure if Markstrom saw it or not. It’s hard to tell from the bench.
The Flames were out-shot 9-1 at one point, but then the game was fairly even after that.
I thought, you know what? The first period, we win a period. And the second period was pretty even. Third period obviously we had the power play to start. I think we had one chance on it, and they had two; Noah’s penalty going to the net, which we take that. I didn’t see the one down to the right of their bench. I couldn’t see… I think it was Sean, cross-checking. But when it’s a tie game, you’ve got to get the next one. Or when it’s 3-2, Lindy has a chance with the goalie out, you’ve got to bury it. You’ve got to get the 65 minutes, you can’t be satisfied to say we’re close or we tried hard.