Hurricanes Extinguish Lacklustre Flames

The Flames and the Carolina Hurricanes squared off tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome in the first meeting of the season between the two teams. The teams split their two meetings last season with the Canes winning 5-2 at home, and the Flames winning 4-1 in Calgary. Sean Monahan had 4 points in the Flames win.

The Flames entered the game sitting at 1-2-1 coming off of Tuesday’s win over Buffalo while Carolina sits at 0-1-2. The Hurricanes have lost each of their games this season by one goal, and last played Tuesday losing in Edmonton 3-2.

Brian Elliott returned to the net tonight for Calgary while Eddie Lack got the start for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes haven’t won in Calgary since 2002.

1st Period

After a flurry of Flames chances Teuvo Teravainen would give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead 7:55 into the period on the counterattack. He was able to deposit a rebound past Elliott after the original shot bounced free.

The Flames would get an opportunity to tie the game when Lee Stempniak high sticked Mark Giordano and the Flames got a four minute powerplay. Time to see if this powerplay had improved.

IT HASN’T. The Flames would only generate a few shots and no high quality chances.

The Flames would be sent immediately back to the powerplay, so basically it was a chance to run and grab a snack from the fridge right? YEP. Nothing again.

The Hurricanes would then get their first chance at a powerplay when Lance Bouma would be sent to the box for hooking. The Canes powerplay would start and the Flames would do a good job killing until Alex Chiasson would tagged for slashing to send Carolina to a 30 second 5 on 3.

As the first penalty expired Victor Rask would shoot through a screen and the puck would beat Elliott over the glove to make it 2-0 Hurricanes.

Calgary would get their fourth powerplay of the period with 2:05 left. Hopefully this one would do the trick. Yet again nothing.

The period would end with the Hurricanes ahead of the Flames 2-0 and shots 10-8 for Calgary.

2nd Period

The Hurricanes would get sent an early powerplay to start the period and wouldn’t be able to capitalize. However Viktor Stalberg would be sent on a breakaway shortly after and make it 3-0 Canes. It is worth noting that the Canes have blown 3-0 leads twice already this season.

Nothing much would happen for a chunk of the period for the Canes would get another powerplay but the Flames would kill it.

The Flames got a powerplay. They didn’t score. What a surprise. Next.

The game would carry forward with the Flames getting some opportunities but nothing much. However with 1:53 to go in the period Troy Brouwer would pick up a loose puck at rip a shot over Lack’s shoulder to cut the lead to 3-1.

The second period would end with the Hurricanes up 3-1 and up on shots 21-18.

3rd Period

The Flames would start the period by making a turnover at the offensive blue line which would lead to TJ Brodie having to take a penalty to prevent a breakaway. Calgary would kill it before getting a powerplay of their own.

The powerplay would fail to generate much of anything before the Flames would be shorthanded again. And the Flames would kill it off again.

Johnny Gaudreau would finally break his goose egg as Dougie Hamilton made a solid play bringing the puck into the Canes zone. Gaudreau would get around Justin Faulk and tuck the puck in past Eddie Lack to cut the score to 3-2.

The Flames would get a couple more chances with Dougie Hamilton getting the best chance on a one timer which Lack managed to save.

Alex Chiasson would take a hi-sticking penalty with 2:31 to go and sent the Flames to the PK. The Flames would pull the goalie and another penalty would be called on the Flames essentially killing all hope.

Jeff Skinner would score on Brian Elliott on the 5 on 3 to make it 4-2 with only 34 seconds to go.

The Hurricanes would go on to win the game 4-2 and outshoot Calgary 32-26 in the game.

The Good

1. Johnny gets his first goal of the year

The Bad

1. Penalties: Both teams combined for 28 PIM meaning almost half the game wasn’t played at even strength. Taking 8 penalties is not going to win games. I’m not even saying bad calls were made on the Flames, but there were just too many undisciplined plays made.
2. Brian Elliott had another rough outing in net giving up four goals

The Ugly

1. SPECIAL TEAMS. 0/6 on the Powerplay which looks absolutely abysmal, and much worse than last year’s PP. The Flames only killed 75% of the Hurricane powerplays too, not a good recipe to win games. Dave Cameron needs to figure this out.
2. The Whole Game: Just a thoroughly unentertaining game for the most part until the Flames got back into it. The constant penalties meant most of the game was spent with one team just dumping the puck down the ice and little rhythm was established.

The Flames record drops to 1-3-1 on the season and the next game is on Saturday night against the St.Louis Blues. God help us if the Flames play like this again.