Young Stars in Penticton: Calgary Flames 4, Vancouver Canucks 3 (OT)

Ryan Lomberg scored his second goal of the game, while shorthanded in overtime, leading the Flames to secure a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in the final game of the Penticton Young Stars Classic.

The Opening Line Up

 Tkachuk-Jankowski-Carroll

Mangiapane-Lomberg-Tuulola

Dube-Kravchenko-Pollock

Doucet-Aagaard-Sevigny

Hyman-Andersson

Kylington-Bruce

Kanzig-Morrison

Schneider (First Half)

Parsons (Second Half)

First Period

The first period had the best pace out of all the games the Flames played in Penticton. The Flames outshot the Canucks 12 to 4, but the most significant event of the period was scrappy Ryan Lomberg getting into a very spirited fight. Despite Lomberg being a fair bit smaller than his opposition, he fared well and when it was all said and done, Lomberg was laughing and yapping the whole way to the penalty box. The guy is a pure agitator but he has some other tools. It was scoreless after one.

Second Period

The floodgates opened in the second period. About 3 minutes in, Canucks forward Michael Carcone fired a shot past Flames’ goaltender Nick Schneider, who was getting in his first action of the tournament. The Flames stormed back immediately, with an Eetu Tuulola wrister from the point getting tipped in front by tryout forward Dennis Kravchenko to tie the game. A couple of minutes later, Ryan Lomberg forced a turnover by Jordan Subban and broke in alone, putting the Flames up 2-1 on a nice goal.

Nick Schneider left the game at the halfway point, stopping 9 of 10 shots, looking completely acceptable in his half a game of work. In came Tyler Parsons, who had stopped 20 of 21 the previous game against Edmonton.

Parsons was tested early, coming in on a Canucks powerplay. However, Mark Jankowski ended up being hooked on a shorthanded breakaway, being awarded a penalty shot. Jankowski tried to go five-hole on Demko but was thwarted, keeping the game 2-1 for the Flames.

After a Flames powerplay, Jordan Subban scored a nice goal for the Canucks to tie up the game on a 2-on-1 that Parsons did not have much of a chance on. The next shift the Canucks went up 3-2 after the puck took a strange bounce in the slot and past Parsons. However, before the period was up, Eetu Tuulola picked up a rebound in front of the net and tucked it past Demko, displaying some nice hands in tight.

Tied after 2, with the shots 26-16 for Calgary.

Third Period

The Flames took a lot of penalties in this period. The Canucks ended up with 4 straight powerplays, but were very unsuccessful on them, with the Flames having numerous high quality shorthanded chances, just unable to capitalize on them. One of those penalties included a big, but quite late hit by Tkachuk. Tkachuk was definitely not involved in creating nearly as much chaos in this game as previous games, but if he is going to be a regular in the NHL this year he is going to need to dial it back a bit, because he made the Flames kill off many penalties at this tournament. However, this tournament is more of a showcase than anything and you cannot blame the guy for working his hardest to make an impression in all aspects of the game.

Tyler Parsons was strong in this period, the Flames ended up killing off all of their penalties, so it was off to overtime.

Overtime

The Flames had a glorious chance early on in the overtime, with Dillon Dube (who had a very good game) making a really nice move in tight and rattling it off the post. Auston Carroll ended up taking a penalty, sending the Flames on one last penalty-kill. On that PK, Lomberg ended up grabbing an errant puck and going in all alone to score his second of the game, and third of the tournament, to win the game.

Flames 3 Stars

1.     Ryan Lomberg: It might sound bad that one of your best players for a prospects tournament is an undrafted forward who played in the AHL/ECHL last year, but in this case that was not an issue, as Lomberg was very good. He definitely made a major impression, scoring a couple goals, getting in a fight, being a regular on a successful penalty-kill and just being genuinely effective every time he was on the ice.

2.     Eetu Tuulola: The star of development camp, Tuulola was solid in this tournament and was well rewarded in this game for his efforts, with a goal and an assist. He’s off to the WHL this year, but he has made quite a bit of noise since being drafted in the 6^th round in June.

3.     Dillon Dube: Dube had a solid outing. He is a fast skater, made a lot of plays in the offensive zone, was good along the boards, drew a penalty and almost scored the OT winner.

A Successful Tournament

The Flames finished the Penticton Young Stars Tournament with a 2-0-1 record, falling second to the Edmonton Oilers who went 3-0-0. However, the Flames played very well in every game and had many prospects make an impact, which is something you want to see in a development tournament. I’ll have my thoughts on the contributions of several of the Flames prospects that participated in this event up on the website tomorrow, you can check it out if you are into such things. Main camp and preseason is just around the corner!

by samwell9