Flames Make It Close but Lose 6-4 to the Blues

The Flames concluded their three game homestand tonight when they welcomed the St.Louis Blues to the Dome. The Blues entered coming off back to back losses in Vancouver and Edmonton respectively. After a hot 3-0 start to the season, the Blues will try to salvage 3 points of a possible 6 in their Western Canadian roadtrip.

The Flames have struggled over the past few years against St. Louis winning only 4 out of the last 16 games. Entering the game, signs were pointing to a Blues win, but that’s why the game is actually played. Chad Johnson gets the start in net while Dennis Wideman and Freddie Hamilton return to the lineup tonight.

By the way, I’ve decided to take a step back when talking about Flames powerplays because they’ve been causing me to slowly spiral towards insanity so far this season.

1st Period

The game would start off with both teams generating some good pressure on the opposition. Sam Bennett would be called for holding sending St. Louis to an early powerplay.

The Blues would take advantage of the poor Flames special teams and David Perron would deflect the puck in the slot into the corner of the net to give the Blues a 1-0 lead 6:04 into the game.

The Flames would get sent to a powerlay of their own, so let’s sit back and watch the festivities. This time the Flames would actually get three shots but no goals, not terrible but not good.

The Blues would control the majority of the period but wouldn’t be able to add to their lead with their best chances being a deflection off the goal post. Chad Johnson made a number of stellar saves to keep the Flames in the game.

The Blues lead 1-0 after the first with a thoroughly dominating performance outshooting the Flames 13-8 in the process.

2nd Period

The Flames would start the 2nd period by tying the game at 1 when Kris Versteeg scored his first goal as a Flame. Versteeg was fed the puck by Troy Brouwer and he one-timed the puck past Jake Allen. Sam Bennett would also get an assist on the goal.

35 seconds later the Flames would take the lead when Michael Ferland backhanded a very weak shot on net that somehow got in. Just like that, the Flames are ahead 2-1. Matt Stajan gets an assist on the goal.

David Perron would tie the game right back up for the Blues with his second goal of the game getting a loose puck in front past Chad Johnson.

Calgary would then get sent to the powerlay when Paul Statsny took a goaltender interference penalty. The Flames wouldn’t be able to score but the powerplay looked much better which is encouraging.

However, with the Blues on the counterattack Mark Giordano would be called for holding giving St.Louis their own powerplay. The penalty would then be made into a double-minor between arguing from Giordano and Glen Gulutzan.

After repeated attempts for the Flames to clear the puck which they failed to do, the Blues would score another PP goal to take the 3-2 lead. Statsny gets the goal for the Blues. Really was a goal that should’ve been avoided if the Flames could’ve cleared the puck, quite disappointing. The Blues would also stay on the PP since the goal went in before the first two minutes expired.

The Flames would actually kill off the remaining two minutes. Shocking right!

St. Louis would make it 4-2 after Nail Yakupov walked around Mark Giordano and then getting across the crease to Patrik Berglund who would roof it for his first goal of the year.

The period ends with the Blues up on the Flames 4-2 and outshooting Calgary 27-18.

3rd Period

The Flames would kill off an early Blues powerplay to start the period.

A bad turnover by Dougie Hamilton would lead to David Perron getting his hat trick goal and extending the lead to 5-2.

The teams would head to some 4 on 4 play when Yakupov and Jokipakka got into a scrum. The Flames would take advantage just before the penalties expired as Mark Giordano would hammer a one timer into the net to make it 5-3 with 10:29 to go.

Kris Versteeg would cut the deficit to 1 with his second of the game with a one timer from the point through a mess of players in front. The Flames are making a game of it now at 5-4 with 4:54 to go.

The Flames would be immediately be sent to the powerplay right after when Jay Bouwemeester knocked down Sam Bennett. However, Jaden Scwartz would get the best chance when he got a clear cut breakaway but was denied by Johnson.

The Blues would be whistled for icing with 1:12 to go and the Flames would take a timeout to draw up a play to hopefully tie the game. But then we realised it was Dave Cameron drawing up the play and all hope was lost.

The Flames would be unable to generate anything off the faceoffs and the Blues would get it down the ice with Steen getting the empty netter. Blues lead 6-4.

The Blues go on to beat the Flames 6-4 and end the game outshooting the Flames 40-27.

The Good

1. Kris Versteeg gets on the board with his first two goals as a Flame
2. The Flames managed to generate some pushback on the Blues in the third

The Bad

1. Clearing the Puck: A number of Blues goals and chances came from the inability to get the puck out of the defensive zone
2. Glen Gulutzan’s new line combinations didn’t seem to get much going all game

The Ugly

1. SPECIAL TEAMS AGAIN! Flames again fail to score on the powerplay including a late 3rd period one that could’ve tied the game. Meanwhile, the penalty kill allowed two goals on four opportunities and was very bad again.
2. The Flames’ Record: Calgary now sits at a very ugly 1-4-1 heading into a short but tough road trip

That’s it for tonight as the Flames again lose, this time at the hands of St. Louis. The Flames drop their record down to 1-4-1. They next play on Monday night against the Chicago Blackhawks before a rematch with the Blues on Tuesday night.