Flames Defeat Blues in Tight Affair

1st Period: Calgary Flames 1, St. Louis Blues 0

The Blues would carry the play out of the gate, generating a few early chances but Mike Smith would close the door.

Calgary would take a 1-0 lead on a strange play midway through the period. Michael Frolik would hit a puck towards the net that would initally look to be stopped by Tage Thompson just before the goal line, however after play carried on the horn blew and the call was changed. It was Frolik’s seventh goal of the season and Mikael Backlund had the assist.

The Flames would get a powerplay shortly after but in tune with how things have gone recently, it was held shotless and failed to generate anything decent.

The Blues wouldn’t get a shot attempt for the final 6:13 of the period. The 3M line would get a couple glorious chances late by would be denied a second goal in the period.

2nd Period: Calgary Flames 1, St. Louis Blues 1

The second period would start off with a sloppy penalty to Dougie Hamilton. Shocking I know. The Blues would make it count with Brayden Schenn dancing around Troy Brouwer (also shocking I know) before beating Mike Smith to tie the game at one.

Shortly after Mikael Backlund would take a penalty himself but the Flames would kill it off. Johnny Gaudreau would get a breakaway but be unable to score.

Penalties would be the story of the rest of the period, including a big scrum late in the period where Vladimir Tarasenko would shoot the puck shortly after whistle. Garnet Hathaway would take offense and give him a shove which would ignite a small brawl.

Calgary’s power play would continue to look pretty disappointing in the period but would generate a few shots at least this time.

3rd Period: Calgary Flames 2, St. Louis Blues 1

Sam Bennett was sent to the box early in the period but the Flames PK would be strong once again, denying any good scoring chances.

A few minutes after, the Flames would take a 2-1 lead with Dougie Hamilton burying a rebound chance through a Hathaway screen. Sean Monahan and T.J. Brodie got assists on Hamilton’s fourth goal of the season.

From there the Flames would continue to push the Blues instead of sitting back to defend the lead. It was very impressive to see the Flames limiting the Blues high powered offense.

The Blues would pull the goalie late but again the Flames would keep them to the outside and clear the puck for the victory.

Final Thoughts

Aside from the powerplay going an ugly 0/4, the Flames played a pretty impressive game against a powerful Blues team. After a fairly even first two periods, the Flames started to pull away in the third period. The Flames outshot the Blues 33-22 in the game.

The third line looked very strong once again with all three having a CF% of 68 or above with Bennett topping the team at 77.27%. The line wasn’t rewarded with any points in the game, but had many dangerous shifts.

The top line struggled again but were looking better as the game continued, and the 3M line did what they usually do which was being amazing.

Travis Hamonic left with an injury in the first period and didn’t return but the Flames defense didn’t skip a beat. Mike Smith was also strong in the Flames net, making saves when tested.

Flame of the Game

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Garnet Hathaway (F): What did the Flames lack early in the season? Tough guys who could also score or create plays. What did Hathaway bring tonight? Exactly that.

He provided a valuable screen on the winning goal, but also challenged the Blues physically at every whistle and even igniting a small brawl.

Next Up: The Montreal Canadiens come to town on Friday night.