Calgary Flames lose 5-2 to the Ottawa Senators

Calgary Flames 2 – Ottawa Senators 5

Complete Stats

Recap

They looked so good on paper — Calgary Flames outshooting and outplaying the Ottawa Senators the entire game, but goals win games.

Things started to unravel for the Flames on an own goal by Travis Hamonic in the 1st period — which was credited to Brady Tkachuk for his 15th goal of the season.

The Sens would get a couple more goals on Flames goaltender David Rittch in the 2nd period. The Sens third goal coming on a PP with Lucic sitting out for tripping Anisimov. Brady Tkachuk’s shot trickles past Rittich — and Conner Brown is able to tap in the sitting duck.

Sam Bennett gets absolutely robbed by Marcus Hogberg — putting on a show, on only his 9th start in net for the Senators.

The Flames got a few good looks on a PP to end the 2nd period — neither Tkachuk, Gaudreau or Giordano able to break the Hogberg code.

Boedker and White on a 2-on-2 make it 4-0 Senators just over 5 minutes into the 3rd period as Rittich makes a save, but gives away a rebound that Colin White jumps on. At this point the Flames had twice as many shots on goal.

Hogberg looking for his first career NHL shut out, but Mark Jankowski puts a stop to that — potting his first goal of the season, and what a beauty it was.

Why the Flames decided to pull their goalie with over 3 minutes left to play in a 4-1 game is beyond me, and boom — Vladislav Namestnikov gets an easy empty net goal for his second point of the game.

Noah Hanifin brings some light to the Flames in the last couple of minutes making it 5-2 — little too late, and the Flames will have to swallow this one.

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: None

2nd: None

3rd: 14:09 – Jankowski (1) (Backlund/Giordano), 18:02 – Hanifin (5) (Hamonic)

Ottawa Senators

1st: 7:15 – Tkachuk (15) (Duclair/Anisimov)

2nd: 11:04 – Tierney (8) (Namestnikov/Brown), 16:53 PPG – Brown (10) (Tkachuk/Reilly)

3rd: 5:30 – White (5) (Boedker/Ennis), 16:46 EN – Namestnikov (10) (unassisted)

Final Thoughts

I was okay with David Rittich getting the start, but I also would’ve put Talbot in net to start the third. I’m starting to lose count on the amount of wide of the net shots from Giordano, and still the second line of Johnny-Monny-Backlund haven’t been able to get it done for the Flames.

I’ll just leave this Pat Steinberg tweet thread here:

Flame of the Game

Mark Jankowski (F): Only because he finally scored his first goal of the season — 2 points in 39 games is still not a good look though.

What’s Next?

1/28/2020: Calgary Flames vs. St.Louis Blues @Scotiabank Saddledome, 7PM MT.

by Renu Sahota