Jackets Dominate Flames 4-1

The Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets entered Friday as two of the leagues hottest teams, with Columbus having won seven games in a row, while the Flames had just had their own six game win streak snapped on Wednesday.

In fact, the Blue Jackets have only had two games where they didn’t get at least a point in November and December combined. However, one of those two games was against the Flames who rode another stellar Chad Johnson performance to a 2-0 victory.

Johnson got the start in net looking to rebound from Wednesday’s loss where he allowed four goals before being pulled at the start of the third. Garnet Hathaway, Freddie Hamilton, and Tyler Wotherspoon are all healthy scratches for the Flames.

1st Period

53 seconds into the game, Matthew Tkachuk would run over Brandon Saad and then get into a fight with Alex Wennberg as the game had some edge early.

The Blue Jackets would get out in front a few minutes later with Boone Jenner slamming home a rebound in front of the net.

Jyrki Jokipakka would be called for interference about halfway through the period to give the Blue Jackets their first powerplay of the night. Columbus has the league’s top powerplay unit so far this season.

The Flames would manage to get the kill, with a great paddle save by Johnson to keep it 1-0.

Brandon Saad would give Columbus the 2-0 lead minutes later getting a shot from the slot through Giordano who effectively screened Johnson.

The Flames would be given an opportunity to halve the deficit when Dennis Savard took a tripping penalty. The opportunity would become even better only seconds into the man advantage when Matt Calvert tripped Johnny Gaudreau to give Calgary a long 5-on-3.

The Flames would take advantage after an extended sequence as Sean Monahan buried a great pass from Kris Versteeg. Johnny also gets an assist on the goal that extends Monahan’s point streak to nine games. It’s a 2-1 game with about 3 minutes to go in the period.

Deryk Engelland would be given a roughing penalty in a late period scrum to send the Blue Jackets to a powerplay with mere seconds left which would carry over to the second period.

After the opening period the Blue Jackets are up 2-1 on the Flames and outshooting Calgary 13-8.

2nd Period

The Jackets would make it 3-1 on the powerplay with a Zach Werenski point shot eluding Johnson through a mess of players.

The Flames would get sent to the powerplay when Deryk Engelland was riden hard into the boards but was okay luckily.

The Blue Jackets would get a shorthanded goal after Matt Calvert tipped away a Gaudreau pass and got a breakaway and made a nice move to beat Johnson. 4-1 Jackets.

The rest of the powerplay would fail to generate any shots as Columbus continued to shutdown the Flames.

Calgary would finally get their first shot of the period TWELVE minutes in with a few good chances but no dice on scoring.

The second period would end with the Blue Jackets dominating the Flames in every aspect and up 4-1 on the board. Shots were 11-4 in the period for the Jackets and now 24-12 in the game.

3rd Period

Calgary would get an early powerplay with a Blue Jacket slashing penalty. Again, the Flames would get their chances but be unable to score on Bobrovsky.

Wideman would be whistled for holding later in the period to give the Jackets a powerplay. The Jackets wouldn’t generate anything but they couldn’t care less as they were just trying to kill the clock.

The Flames would get another PP chance with Gaudreau being tripped with about 8 minutes to go in the period. This powerplay would also have a lot of great chances, keeping the puck in the zone for the first minute and fifty seconds but some great saves from Bobrovsky keeps it 4-1.

A thoroughly boring period concludes with both teams just packing it in and the Flames lose 4-1. Final shots for the game finish 29-23.

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

The Flames down to 16-15-2 and are next in action on Monday in Arizona against the Coyotes. Join us then as the Flames try to turn their ship back in the right direction.

by Michael MacGillivray