NHL 20 Sim: Flames score at will in 7-1 rout of Canucks

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Flames sim record: 5-1-1

Leaders: (G): Monahan 4, Bennett 4, Gaudreau 4. (A): Lindholm 7, Giordano 6, Monahan 5. Pts: Monahan 9, Giordano 8, Lindholm 7

Calgary Flames 7 – Vancouver Canucks 1

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: 6:49- Bennett (12) (Rieder), 10:05- Gaudreau (22) (Monahan), 18:02- Rieder (6) (Czarnik, Brodie)

2nd: 14:16- Mangipane (20) (Tkachuk, Backlund), 14:56- Brodie (6) (Giordano), 16:11- Giordano (7) (Lindholm, Gaudreau)

3rd: 17:23- Dube (7) (N/A

Vancouver Canucks

1st: None

2nd: 17:47- Toffoli (Miller, Hughes)

3rd: None

Recap

The Flames played a near perfect road game Friday night in Vancouver. Relentless offense, combined with a superb goaltending performance from David Rittich, lead to a convincing 7-1 victory for the Flames over the division rival Canucks.

Sam Bennett and Johnny Gaudreau got the scoring started midway through the first. Tobias Rieder created a turnover and got the puck to Bennett who scored on his second shot attempt on Thatcher Demko.

Gaudreau continued that trend a few moments later, beating Demko to the far post with his rebound goal. Gaudreau has goals in 4 straight games.

Tobias Rieder got on the board himself, with a low blocker post shot past Demko. He’d finish the period in net, but Louis Domingue took over the crease for the remainder of the game at the start of the second.

Domingue held down the net against some quality Flames chances, and it wasn’t until just over 5 minutes remaining in the period when Andrew Mangiapane finally solved him. Mangiapane blasted a one time slapshot through Domingue, in a very similar fashion to his first NHL goal, in the same arena.

That goal opened the floodgates, as TJ Brodie and defensive partner Mark Giordano scored just a few moments apart. Brodie took a soft pass from Giordano in full stride, and beat Domingue glove high.

The young Canucks took an older Giordano too lightly, and he made them pay, skating past the entire team en route to burying his own rebound on the breakaway.

The Canucks were momentarily jolted to life, and Tyler Toffoli ripped a bad goal over Rittich’s blocker from distance to get the Canucks on the board with just over 2 minutes remaining in the second.

The Flames and Rittich locked the game down in the third, and only Dillon Dube was able to score in the period. The Flames rookie picked up a loose puck on the breakaway, and scored a backhand beauty on Domingue.

The Flames move to 5-1-1 in our simulated games.

Flame of the Game

David Rittich (G): Even the virtual hockey world has the Flames goaltending polar opposite home and away. One game after both goalies were porous against a weak Ducks team, Rittich shut down a desperate playoff hopeful in their own arena.

by Gordie Taylor