Rittich, Tkachuk lead Flames to Sixth Straight Win against Florida

The Calgary Flames entered Friday’s contest against the Florida Panthers coming off the high of having just beaten the league’s best team the previous night. The Flames were going to their back-up David Rittich as they looked for their sixth straight victory.

1st Period: Calgary Flames 0, Florida Panthers 0

Micheal Ferland would draw an early penalty on the Panthers with a nice push towards the net before being tripped. Calgary wouldn’t be able to capitalize before T.J. Brodie took a tripping penalty to send the game to 4-on-4.

Florida would get a couple chances on their powerplay but a post and a big save from David Rittich would hold them scoreless.

Calgary would get a second powerplay opportunity midway through the period but again would be unable to score.

Both teams would get some great chances during the period but both Rittich and James Reimer were on their game. Rittich would however take a late tripping penalty to give the Panthers a powerplay that would carry over to the second period.

*Penalty carries over

2nd Period: Calgary Flames 3, Florida Panthers 1

The Panthers would take the 1-0 lead on the powerplay after Troy Brouwer was unable to clear the puck. Jonathan Huberdeau would find Evgeni Dadonov in front who would beat Rittich with a one-timer.

Just 33 seconds later the Flames would tie the game 1-1 with Sean Monahan wiring a shot past Reimer with a great feed from Dougie Hamilton. Mark Giordano also got an assist on the goal and it was Monahan’s 21st of the year. Two goals in the first minute of the period.

Matthew Tkachuk would give the Flames the 2-1 lead when he buried a rebound off a Travis Hamonic shot. Troy Brouwer got the other assist on Tkachuk’s 12th of the season.

Shortly after Florida would head back to the powerplay when Mikael Backlund went off for slashing. The Flames would do a great job killing the penalty to get the game back to even strength.

Jamie McGinn and Brodie would get into a scrum headed up the ice with McGinn dropping his gloves and both guys grabbing onto each other. McGinn would take the extra penalty to give the Flames a powerplay.

Calgary would take advantage on the powerplay with Johnny Gaudreau slapping a puck under the arm of Reimer to give the Flames a 3-1 lead. Giordano and Backlund would get assists on the goal.

Florida would get another powerplay but be thwarted by some fearless Flames shot blocking. Calgary up 3-1 after two periods.

3rd Period: Calgary Flames 4, Florida Panthers 2

The first half of the period would feature doing a really good job to limit the Panthers from having any dangerous scoring chances.

With 6:57 Evgeni Dadonov would score after a loose puck would bounce right onto his tape and he would bury it to make it a 3-2 game.

Florida would push hard down the stretch as they continued to pepper Rittich with shots but the Czech would stay calm and collected as always to turn them all away.

Tkachuk would make a great individual effort to clear the puck and then skate into the Panthers zone to set up Mikael Backlund for an empty net goal. Tkachuk was pestered the whole way but muscled off the Panther player. The goal was Backlund’s tenth of the year.

Flames win 4-2!

Final Thoughts

Flame of the Game

David Rittich (G): I was tempted to give it to Tkachuk, but any time your BACK-UP goaltender can come out and make 41 saves to get your team a big victory, he deserves praise. Just as Rittich has been all year, he was a calming presence on the back-end and made some tremendous saves. He’s 4-0-1 in his five career starts.

Next Up: The Flames take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon to wrap up their trip before heading on their five day break.

by Michael MacGillivray