NHL20 Playoffs Sim Stanley Cup Finals, Game 4: Tkachuk scores game-winner with 44 seconds left to tie series

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our Youtube channel to get live updates and watch the live stream of our sim games

Best of 7 series tied 2-2

Leaders:

Goals

BOS: Marchand (12)

CGY: Monahan (13)

Assists

BOS: Bergeron (17)

CGY: Andersson/Backlund (15)

Points

BOS: Bergeron (23)

CGY: Monahan (25)

Goalies

BOS: Rask (13-6-1) 2.55 GAA .919 SV% 2 SO

CGY: Rittich (15-5-1) 2.92 GAA .917 SV% 2 SO

Calgary Flames 5 – Boston Bruins 4

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: 3:25 PPG- Lindholm (8) (Andersson [15], Tkachuk [4]), 9:57- Hanifin (1) (Tkachuk [5], Monahan [12])

2nd: 4:18 PPG- Monahan (13) (N/A)

3rd: 12:00- Dube (8) (Lucic [8], Hamonic [11]), 19:16- Tkachuk (8) (Hamonic [12], Backlund [15])

Boston Bruins

1st: None

2nd: 7:33- Kuraly (6) (Wagner [2], Lindholm [4]), 11:49- Bergeron (6) (Pastrnak [10], Ritchie [10])

3rd: 5:45- Coyle (6) (Krug [10]), 15:49- Wagner (2) (McAvoy [7], Chara [6])

Recap

Boy does NHL20 like blowing leads. For what seems like the umpteenth time, the Flames blew a 3+ goal lead in a playoff game, before flip-flopping a few times, which lead to tonight’s incredible finish.

Calgary got off to a good start, and was greatly assisted by a strong powerplay performance. 3 minutes into the contest, Elias Lindholm snapped off a quick wrist shot on the powerplay to give Calgary the 1-0 lead.

Pure determination increased that lead. Sean Monahan, Andrew Mangiapane, and Matthew Tkachuk all fired off multiple rebound attempts in close on Tuukka Rask, who turned them all away. Finally, Tkachuk pulled the puck away from the fray, and sent it back to Noah Hanifin at the point. Hanifin took a few steps, and sniped his first career playoff goal past Rask.

The Flames carried that lead through the first intermission, until the powerplay came through again. Elias Lindholm and Monahan broke into the Boston zone 2-on-1, where Monahan’s initial shot was saved by Rask, but the rebound was forced off of John Moore’s stick by Lindholm.

That goal increased the lead to 3-0, but the Boston comeback was on from there. Some nifty passing lead to Sean Kuraly and Patrice Bergeron goals to cut the lead to just 1 going into the third, where Charlie Coyle circled the Flames’ net and roofed the tying goal on Rittich.

Dillon Dube broke the tie with 8 minutes remaining for his first of the series, hammering a Milan Lucic pass over a screened Rask. That goal gave the Flames a 4-3 lead late in the third, which they could not hang on to. Charlie McAvoy launched a hard slapshot through traffic, which bounced off of Chris Wagner, and evened the game once again.

Great players step up in big games, and Matthew Tkachuk did just that. Calgary had the puck dangerously circling around their own zone before it was cleared by Travis Hamonic and Mikael Backlund. Tkachuk carried it into the Boston zone, and took advantage of a Brandon Carlo misstep by blasting an absolute rocket through Rask.

The goal gave the Flames a 5-4 lead with just 44 seconds remaining, and this time they did not squader a lead. Tkachuk finished with 3 points, while Monahan and Hamonic each finished with 2, while the Flames powerplay went 2/2 on the night. The series goes back to Boston on Wednesday night.

Flame of the Game

Matthew Tkachuk (F): A shockingly quiet playoff performance seems to have come to an end in the Cup Finals for Mr. Chuck. After just 5 goals and 8 points through the first 18 games of the playoffs, Tkachuk now has 3 goals and 5 points through 4 games thanks to his 3 point performance tonight.

by Gordie Taylor