Game recap: Singing the Blues as the streak ends in St Louis

Jori Lehtera scored the game-winner as two early goals from the St. Louis Blues seemingly killed this game off early, with only a glimmer of the trademarked Calgary Flames comeback keeping this game interesting, as one of the Flames’ bogey teams ended their winning streak at seven.

One

The Blues started hard and fast out of the gate, turning some early pressure into an early goal, Vladimir Tarasenko tapping in a loose puck after T.J. Brodie blocked a Carl Gunnarsson shot which caught out Karri Ramo. 1-0 Blues at 1:23.

The goal seemed to briefly wake the Flames up, Dougie Hamilton finding Josh Jooris with a stretch pass, but the forward could only find Brian Elliott’s chest.

They were made to pay for the miss soon after. Tarasenko seemed to swap abilities with Colton Parayko, the young defenceman deking Brodie out of his skates before backhanding past Ramo to make it 2-0 at 3:47

This prompted Deryk Engelland to decide the team needed a spark, and promptly fought Ryan Reaves – and lost.

The rest of the period was mostly the Flames trying to stay in the game – the highlight coming in the form of a Ramo point blank save from Jori Lehtera at 7:39, along with Mason Raymond hitting the crossbar after some silky skating in the Blues zone.

It could have been three before the end of the period, though. Alexander Steen had a goal disallowed for a high-stick, but in truth was somewhat unlucky to have it chalked off – his wild swing at the puck deflected it onto Sean Monahan’s stick before beating Ramo, but the decision on the ice stood, and the Flames went in 2-0 down at the end of the first.

Two

The start of the second was much less eventful. The Flames had a bit of early pressure, cycling the puck well, but the closest they came to a goal was from an Elliott shoulder save from Johnny Gaudreau on a 4-on-2 chance.

After Jay Bouwmeester took an interference penalty at 28:37, the Flames were forced to endure a two minute powerplay, with the icing on top of the tire fire cake being Dougie Hamilton managing to take himself offside by fake passing.

David Backes nearly made it three soon after, missing an open goal on a rebound by about a quarter of an inch after Troy Brouwer hit the post. Paul Stastny went for hooking at 32:03 but the Flames only had one shot that made it to Elliott, and was easily stopped.

Soon after, lights out. Steen fed Lehtera, and he beat Ramo (who in his defence was hung out to dry) easily from the faceoff circle at 34:53. 3-0.

The Flames had a chance shortly afterwards, a bouncing puck in front of Elliott was collected by Mikael Backlund, but the Blues’ nettie stopped the chance. He also denied Gaudreau sneaking in from the boards, just after Gaudreau had hit the post. Yep, one of those nights.

After another powerplay came to nothing (Parayko for delay of game), Mark Giordano hit the post right at the end of the second. The Flames outshot the Blues 15-6 in that period, but went in a further goal behind, mostly due to a lack of high-danger chances.

Three

The Flames thought they'd scored early in the third. Monahan's swipe at an air puck was initially rejected on-ice, but looked in line with the crossbar on review, and the goal stood. 3-1 at 44:00, assisted by Giordano and Jooris.

Another powerplay (Robby Fabbri for holding at 44:59) was fruitless, a redirect from Raymond forced a save from Elliott from close in. Shortly afterwards, a powerful shot from Engelland of all people forced a juicy rebound, but Elliott recovered well to deny Raymond.

Momentum swung briefly in favour of the Blues – Ramo was forced into a couple of saves – but it soon returned to the norm – Flames domination with little sign of penetration. Ramo made another good save from Fabbri with five minutes left, ironically from a lovely stretch pass on the counter attack.

Suddenly, hope. Giordano’s shot on the rush got a nasty deflection from the stick of Kevin Shattenkirk to beat Elliott at 56:07, assisted by Backlund and David Jones. 3-2 and in prime Flames time.

Ramo was pulled with about 80 seconds left, but to no avail, as the Blues held firm and kept hold of the two points.

Flame of the game

In a game where the Flames were average at best, Karri Ramo was the one who stood out. He didn't have a chance with two of the three, and the other he was stretched for. He had little support for the first 30 minutes, and damnit he tried his damnest.

Next up

The Flames head to Michigan, where the Detroit Red Wings will play host for the evening as the Flames look to make it eight from nine.

by Liam McCausland