Calgary Flames 3 - San Jose Sharks 5

Complete Stats

Scoring

1st Period: CGY 1:37- Dube (Lucic), SJS 8:58- PPG Hertl (Gregor/Barabanov), CGY 11:55- Gaudreau (Tkachuk/Lindholm)

2nd Period: CGY 4:31- Ruzicka (Tanev/Richardson), SJS 10:08- Karlsson (Couture/Weatherby), SJS 14:27- PPG Couture (Karlsson/Dahlen), SJS 18:10- Hertl (Barabanov)

3rd Period: SJS 19:18- Hertl (Couture)

Calgary had a chance to finish off their West Coast road trip with a victory in San Jose, but the Sharks had other plans in mind. The Flames anchored themselves to an early 3-1 lead and looked well on their way to two points, but Adin Hill settled in (40-43), the Flames took two dumb penalties and the Sharks made Calgary pay with four unanswered goals to take a 5-3 victory at home.

The Flames were the better team for a good chunk of this contest, but the Sharks were opportunistic and picked their spots well. Calgary’s first lead was gone less than six minutes after they scored the opening goal. Erik Gudbranson would go to the bin for cross checking and Tomas Hertl would score the first of his three goals on the evening to tie the game at 1-1.

Calgary would proceed to score twice in the second period to take a two goal lead and then Erik Karlsson would redeem himself after taking a penalty. Karlsson would come flying out the box and no Flames player was even remotely close as he cruised in and beat Dan Vladar to get the Sharks within a goal. Next up on the screw up train was Nikita Zadorov as he would take a cross checking penalty that would lead to a Logan Couture PPG and we were all tied at 3-3. Tomas Hertl would put the final nails in the Flames coffin, scoring late in the second and an empty net goal at the end of the third and that’s all she wrote as the Flames headed home 5-3 losers in San Jose.

Highlights

Johnny Gaudreau with a nice forehand to back hand marker

Adam Ruzicka gets his first NHL goal

Final Thoughts

-It’s going to sound ridiculous when you see the Flames took 43 shots, but they seemed to be too cute with the puck tonight. Calgary certainly was moving the puck well, but they seemed to be trigger shy at times and it’s not like all 43 shots were quality either. They missed a ton wide and high, Lucic missed an open net and the Sharks had a huge hand in Calgary NOT putting pucks in the net.

-And they did that by blocking a ton of shots tonight. The Sharks got in the way of 22 shots and they had at least 4 key blocks in the third period, which really helped San Jose seal this game.

-The Flames third line was a huge help tonight. Dillon Dube got the opening goal and they really didn’t relent all night long. The grouping of Dube/Lucic/Monahan line had 6 SOG and 10 hits and each player was over 15 minutes of TOI.

-The Flames special teams were far from special. Calgary had three opportunities with the extra man and came up empty, only getting 6 shots on the PP. And as bad as the PP was, the PK was worse. The Flames gave up two goals while serving penalties, one on a weird scenario where Mikael Backlund broke a stick blocking a shot and instead of staying on the ice, left to change and allowed San Jose to score on what was basically a 5 on 3.

-The Flames did get scoring from three of their four lines, which is something good to take away from this contest. Johnny Gaudreau, Dillon Dube and Adam Ruzicka all found the back of the net tonight, which really should have been enough if Calgary played smart.

-It might be time for a switch up on the blue line. The Flames bottom pairing had a rough evening, taking two penalties that led to PPGs and they struggled with their coverages and with the puck on their sticks. Erik Gudranson and Nikita Zadorov both weren’t at their best and maybe it’s time to give the recently recalled Juuso Valimaki and Michael Stone a shot in at least one of the next two games.

Flame Of The Game

Photo by Amanda Cain/NHLI

Rasmus Andersson (D): 1 SOG, 2 hits, 4 blocked shots, 1 takeaway

What’s Next?

12/9: Calgary Flames vs Carolina Hurricanes, 7 PM MT