Flames “Slash” Wild’s Hopes in 3-2 SO Win

The Flames hosted the Minnesota Wild tonight for the first time this season as they played the second game of their three game homestand. Calgary defeated the Wild earlier in the year by a score of 1-0. Johnny Gaudreau scored the only goal of the game before getting injured on a slash from Eric Staal.

The Wild meanwhile are coming off a loss to the Canucks two nights ago which snapped a three game winning streak for them.

Chad Johnson got the start in net for the Flames again after being awarded the Three Star Cup as Flames player of the month. Hunter Shinkaruk and Brett Kulak were scratches for the Flames again.

1st Period

The Wild would get on the board early with Chris Stewart deflecting a Ryan Suter shot past Johnson. Minnesota is up 1-0 3:50 into the opening period.

Calgary would get a powerplay shortly after when Kris Versteeg got hit up high by a Wild defenceman.

Time to see if the Flames terrible home powerplay could capitalize. As we kind of expected, it was a brutal PP as the Flames couldn’t even get set up in the offensive zone.

Dougie Hamilton was also injured during the powerplay when he went crashing into the end boards, jolting his upper body pretty good.

The Flames would get the game tied up when Versteeg buried a rebound from Dubnyk’s right after a hard shot from Jyrki Jokipakka. Sean Monahan also got an assist on the goal as he continues to heat up. 1-1 with 7 and a half minutes left in the period.

Shortly after, Matthew Tkachuk would be hooked sending the Flames back to a powerplay (is that even good anymore?). I’ll tell you what is good though, Hamilton returned to the game after missing a few shifts.

Turns out the powerplay was good too because Mikael Backlund gave the Flames the 2-1 lead only seconds into it. During a scramble in front of the net, the puck would trickle through to Backlund who slid it in. Tkachuk and Giordano got assists on the goal. Make that two powerplay goals at home this year!

The Flames would get sent back to the powerplay AGAIN as Tkachuk drew a roughing penalty on the Wild. However the Flames wouldn’t capitalize this time.

The Wild would get their first powerplay of the game late in the period when Backlund was whistled for slashing Eric Staal (at least slash his hands not his stick).

The Flames would be able to kill the first half of the powerplay as the opening period ends with Calgary up 2-1. Shots in the period were 9-7 in favor of the Flames.

2nd Period

The Flames would kill off the remainder of the Wild advantage to start the second period.

A large chunk of the period would drag on with both teams focusing on shutting down the other defensively as we’d see a five minute stretch of hockey without a whistle and only one shot on net during the time period.

A thoroughly boring second period ends with the Flames still ahead 2-1. The Wild are holding a 15-14 edge in shots.

3rd Period

The Wild would get the game tied up when Mikko Koivu blasted a shot past Johnson after a wild scramble in front of his net. The game is tied 2-2 with just over 12 minutes to go in the third period.

After a long sustained offensive shift by the Flames, Tkachuk would be whistled for an interference call sending the Wild to the powerplay. Calgary would get another good kill as the teams returned to even strength.

Calgary would get sent to a powerplay of their own when Tkachuk drew his third penalty of the game after Matt Dumba broke his stick on a slapshot. The Flames would be unable to score despite generating a few good chances.

Tkachuk would be whistled for a roughing call with just over three minutes to go in the third giving the Wild a late man advantage. The Flames would expertly kill the penalty again with some great defensive work as the Wild failed to even establish anything.

The Flames would be given a late penalty when Jason Zucker gave a cross check to the face of Mark Giordano with 2 seconds to go meaning it would carry over to overtime.

The third period ends with the score tied 2-2 and shots 27-24 Calgary. Off to overtime with a Flames PP!

Overtime

The Flames would generate a lot of high quality chances on the powerplay but either be denied by Dubnyk or miss the net entirely.

Calgary would get a glorious opportunity but Spurgeon would slide in and save the game for the Wild in front.

Overtime ends with overtime shots 4-1 Calgary and 31-25 for the game. We’re off to a shootout.

Shootout

Round 1:

MIN - Nino Niederreiter: Save

CGY - Kris Versteeg: Goal

Round 2:

MIN - Jason Pominville: Goal

CGY - Sean Monahan: Goal

Round 3:

MIN - Charlie Coyle: Save

CGY - X

FLAMES WIN!!! The Flames win the shootout 2-1 and the game 3-2. Beautiful goals from Versteeg and Monahan and two big saves from Johnson.

The Good

1. Special Teams had a great game by scoring a powerplay goal and more importantly killing three Wild powerplays.
2. Kris Versteeg was flying out there tonight as he scored another goal
3. Matthew Tkachuk was all over the ice drawing three Wild penalties and playing a strong game

The Bad

1. The Flames sat back a little bit too much with their 2-1 in the second and third period, but luckily snapped back after the game was tied.

The Ugly

1. Watching that awfully boring second period, luckily it picked up late for a very entertaining finish

The Flames win for the second game in a row and up their record to 12-13-2. They’ve now picked up points in 5 of their last 6 games, including 4 wins. Also, THE FLAMES ARE IN A PLAYOFF SPOT!!! (Disclaimer: I know there’s games in hand and everything but let’s just enjoy it for tonight haha)

Calgary hosts the Anaheim Quackers on Sunday night as they try to extend their win streak to three games and get back to .500. Join us for all our pre game coverage and the puck will drop at 7:30 MT. Go Flames Go