Tkachuk Breaks Late Tie, Flames Get Well Earned W

Scoring

1st

CGY [1]- Dube (2) (Andersson (10), Hanifin (7)) 1:19

CHI [1]- Hagel (6) (N/A) 8:57

CGY [2]- Lucic (5) (Richardson (1)) 13:06

2nd

CHI [2]- Johnson (1) (N/A) 3:51

3rd

CGY [3] Tkachuk (9) (Andersson (11), Lindholm (13)) 14:25

CGY [4] EN- Lewis (2) (N/A) 18:39

CGY [5] EN- Gaudreau (9) (Lindholm (14)) 19:34

Game Notes

-It ended well: But it wasn’t “all’s well” for the early stages of the game, as two red hot goalies looked soft on the first shots. Fleury gave up 2 goals on his first 4 shots against, before locking the Flames down for the vast majority of the night. Markstrom also gave up 2 goals on his first 9 shots, although it came much later than Fleury, in the second period. Like Fleury, Markstrom shut the door the rest of the evening, but unlike Fleury, yielded no more goals. He made some fantastic stops on Patrick Kane, but the Flames did a good job limiting Chicago to only 21 shots.

-Not Assisted: The last 3 goals (it should be the last 4) all share one characteristic, seen at the beginning of this paragraph. That would be thanks to Tyler Pitlick, who swept a puck to Brock Nelson on Long Island for the Islanders second goal. Tonight, an errant backhand pass fell right to Brandon Hagel who tied the game at 1 in the first period. The second goal, Reese Johnson’s first in the NHL, was a seemingly fine pass from Markstrom to Lindholm who bobbled it right to Johnson. Markstrom, who seemingly had a clear sight of the puck, gave up an incredibly soft goal to even the game at 2.

-GentleMilan: Even with the adrenaline of absolutely sniping the go-ahead goal in the first period, Lucic exerted effort only to prevent Dominik Kubalik from stopping Trevor Lewis’s slowly rolling empty net goal. He could have easily tapped it in for his second of the night, but generously ensured Lewis would get his second empty net goal in as many games. Johnny Gaudreau would add a second empty netter on a turnover in the Blackhawks zone, on a malcontented non-icing.

-TkaClutch: It won’t be on many highlight reels, but Tkachuk bouncing a puck off of Seth Jones with around 5 minutes remaining in the third was exactly what the Flames needed. Everything had stuck to Fleury since those two opening goals, and a fluke goal saved the Flames from going to overtime.

-Ice Breaker: It wasn’t a goal that should happen on a regular basis, but you have to think Dillon Dube’s soft opener was exactly what the Flames needed. A weak opponent, returning home from a very long road trip, and facing a red-hot goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury was a recipe for disaster. The goals that the Flames gave up were the exact sort of blunders you’d expect, but they got some breathing room thanks to another strong first period.

by Gordie Taylor