Canadiens Douse Flames, Calgary Loses 3rd Straight

Calgary Flames 2 – Montreal Canadiens 4

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: None

2nd: None

3rd: Lucic (2) (Bennett, Ryan) 18:42, Andersson (2) (Gaudreau, Lindholm) PPG 19:37

Montreal Canadiens

1st: Gallagher (3) (Perry, Kotkaniemi) PPG 10:07, Weber (2) (Petry, Drouin) PPG 15:39

2nd: Anderson (3) (Kotkaniemi, Drouin) 8:21, Toffoli (6) (Suzuki) SHG 19:35

3rd: None

Recap

Heading into the contest, there was some urgency for the Flames to get back to their winning ways after two home losses against Toronto. The Flames turned to David Rittich for his first start of the season to get him into the fold after a strong start by Jacob Markstrom.

The opening few minutes of the game featured a number of chances both ways as the Flames came out with a much better opening period compared to Tuesday’s game. However it was Montreal who got on the board first after a penalty to Juuso Valimaki gave them the man advantage. Despite a pretty good kill by the Flames for the first half of it, the Habs finally set up, and then a quick passing play in front had Brendan Gallagher beat out Giordano and score on Rittich.

A few minutes later, on another powerplay off a pretty chintzy call, Montreal struck again, this time with Weber slapping a shot that hit off Valimaki and past Rittich rounding out a rough period for the rookie defender. Despite a pretty strong performance at even strength, the Flames found themselves down 2-0 heading to the second period.

In the second period Montreal took over control of the game and added a third goal when Josh Anderson batted a rebound out of the air on a 2-on-1. That goal really took the wind of out the Flames sails and the game seemed pretty much over at that point. Montreal would then make it 4-0 late in the period when they were shorthanded as a lofted flip pass behind the Flames gave Tyler Toffoli a breakaway which he slid right through Rittich.

In the third the Flames held the majority of chances but were kept to the outside. Calgary would break the shutout bid late in the third with a long shot from Sam Bennett being deflected past Carey Price by Milan Lucic for his second goal in as many games. The Flames added another late goal in a fit of offense that more so angered me as a fan who watched them dawdle through the first 58 minutes of the game without doing much. This time it was Rasmus Andersson on the powerplay with a point shot that just made it through Price.

The goal made it 4-2 which was the final, as the Flames dropped their third game in a row and fell to 2-3-1 on the season. Their next game is also against Montreal on Saturday.

Final Thoughts

Flame of the Game

Elias Lindholm (F): While no Flames were particularly great on this evening, I thought Lindholm and his linemates were the best of bunch, especially in the first fourty minutes as they created a number of very good chances.

by Michael MacGillivray