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The Flames had a rough week going 1-3-0 over the past 7 days, but still managed to stay in playoff position thanks to some help within the Conference. Calgary has some important games coming up in the next week and they can’t have another losing week if they want to stay afloat in the playoff conversation. But that’s this week coming, let’s look at what happened with the Flames last week that was noteworthy.
Johnson’s 2 Saves
Chad Johnson has done plenty to save the Flames season so far. He had an amazing December stretch before coming down to Earth in his last 8 starts. With all of that said, he showed up against the Sharks and saved the day again as the Flames were on the edge of losing 2 valuable points in the division and conference. A little past the midway point of the 3rd period TJ Brodie was called for holding and Mikkel Boedker was given a penalty shot and this happened:
Then with 8 seconds left in the game, Calgary got lazy and turned the puck over and Boedker came in on Johnson again and this happened:
Johnson came up big all game and got the Flames 2 very important points that they couldn’t afford to lose. He finished the week 1-2-0 as the Flames did him no favors against the Devils and Jets.
Is Sean Monahan Heating Up?
12 games. That’s how long it had been since Monahan had scored a goal until he found the back of the net for the Flames only goal against the NJ Devils. He followed that up with the Flames only goal of the contest against the Oilers Saturday night by following up his own shot and burying the rebound. That gave Monahan 2 goals for the week and while that’s something we should expect from the Flames big money centre, it’s been so rare to see him score, it becomes a big deal. The 12 games without a goal was his longest of the season, but he’s also had a 9 game stretch and a 5 game run without scoring a goal. The two markers he had this week were his 11th & 12th of the season and if the Flames are going to make a playoff run he needs to pick it up and fast.
The Battle Of Alberta Means Something
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For the first time in a long time the Battle Of Alberta means something more than provincial bragging rights. Both the Flames and the Oilers held playoff positions coming into the contest and Saturday night’s game lived up to expectations. That’s how regular season battles between the Flames and Oilers should look. The Flames ended up losing in a shootout 2-1, but it’s not like they were ever out of the game. They came out flying, got GREAT goaltending from Brian Elliott, but Edmonton ended up 1 goal better. Unfortunately for fans of both teams there’s only one regular season game left against each other on Saturday, January 21st. The schedule makers opened the season for the Flames with a back to back with Edmonton and then two in the month of January. It would have been better to space these meetings out and get at least one in the month of March to make things interesting. The Oilers lead the season series so far 3-0.