Flames Winning Streak Stopped at 3

Calgary Flames 1 Washington Capitals 3

The Flames will have to start their winning streak over again as their current 3 gamer was stopped Sunday night with a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. Washington came into Calgary and won for their 5th time in their last 7 tries at the Saddledome.

Washington put the first points of the game on the board quickly at 2:01 of the first period when Brett Connolly took a beautiful feed out front from Jay Beagle, scoring his first NHL goal. It wasn’t long after that when Washington jumped on the power play, thanks to a Deryk Engelland high sticking penalty, and made the Flames pay. Marcus Johansson was situated right where he needed to be and tipped in an Alexander Ovechkin shot from the point to give the Caps a 2-0 lead. Six minutes later the Flames were able to get themselves on the board. Matthew Tkachuk came up with a loose puck and fed a streaking Mikael Backlund for his 1st goal of the season.

Those 3 goals would be the bulk of the scoring as neither team could find the back of the net in the second period. The Flames were gifted 2 power plays in the second frame, but came up empty on both attempts. Even with 4 minutes of the extra skater, the Flames could only muster 6 shots for the entire period. Brian Elliott kept the Flames within a goal when he stone walled Alexander Overchkin on the door step midway though the period.

The 3rd period was more of the same as the Flames and Caps traded shots (8 a piece), but neither team could get the puck past their respective goaltenders. It wasn’t until the Flames pulled Brian Elliott for the extra man that a team would score. And it wasn’t the Flames. Jay Beagle stole a Mark Giordano pass that was intended for Johnny Gaudreau and fed Marcus Johansson for his second goal of the game. That empty netter put the nail in the coffin and the Flames 3 game winning streak was over.

Even though the 3-1 loss ends the Flames winning streak, Calgary played well down by 2 and managed to fight back to get within a goal. While moral victories don’t count in the standings, the Flames weren’t ever really out of this game and they got excellent goaltending again from Brian Elliott.

The Flames next play on Tuesday when they head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks.

Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images

Flame of the Game: Mikael Backlund.

Backlund had the only Flames goal and he led the team with 6 SOG. He also was on the ice for 16:01, had 1 hit, 2 blocked shots and found himself an even 0 +/-.