Moral Victories Don’t Matter Anymore

Calgary Flames 1 – Montreal Canadiens 2

Preview

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: 2:24

2nd: None

3rd: 6:30- Lindholm (12) (Gaudreau [17], Tkachuk [20])

Montreal Canadiens

1st: None

2nd: 9:32- Toffoli (20) (Suzuki [18], Kulak [6])

3rd: 15:45- Toffoli (21) (Armia [6], Suzuki [19])

Complete Stats

Recap

There’s no denying that the Flames played no less dominant than they had in the 3 previous games, but this time there was no sweetness of victory. In this situation they’ve put themselves in, there’s no more room left for moral victories. Calgary played all three periods superbly in every aspect, but the fact is they scored one less goal than their opponent.

The chances were there. Matthew Tkachuk fanned twice on an empty net that would have opened the scoring, but he could not. Minutes later, Nick Suzuki found Tyler Toffoli cruising through the slot, and he buried his 20th to give Montreal 1-0 lead midway through the second period.

Rasmus Andersson and Johnny Gaudreau both pelted the crossbar on the same powerplay, and Tkachuk missed yet another empty net on a slick backhand, which hit the post early in the third.

The Flames did end up getting some puck luck, as Elias Lindholm’s second attempt on net deflected off of Ben Chiarot’s shinpads and in to even the affair early in the third.

Another slot goal by Toffoli with under 5 minutes remaining would seal the deal, as his stick was just slightly quicker than Mark Giordano to tuck it up under the bar.

The Flames see their 3 games winning streak come to a close, and are back at it Monday against the Senators.

by Gordie Taylor