Recap: Flames Barely Hold On To Defeat The Kings 6-5

Calgary Flames 6 – LA Kings 5

Complete Stats

Scoring

1st: CGY 3:49- Huberdeau (Andersson/Hanifin), LAK 4:53- (PPG) Kaliyev (Arvidsson/Moore), LAK 6:11- Kaliyev (Lizotte/Roy), CGY 10:55- Mangiapane (Lucic/Kadri), CGY 11:37- Ritchie (Coleman), CGY 16:25- Toffoli (Ruzicka/Lindholm)

2nd: CGY 1:51- (PPG) Lindholm (Toffoli/Kadri), LAK 14:26- Fiala (Edler/Kupari), CGY 16:36- Ruzicka (Lindholm/Toffoli)

3rd: LAK 8:57- Kopitar (Doughty/Walker), LAK 18:41- Kempe (Doughty/Fiala)

Welp, that was closer than it needed to be as the Calgary Flames defeated the LA Kings 6-5 in their final game of their two game homestand Monday night. The Flames had themselves a shiny 6-3 lead and nearly coughed it up to the Kings if not for Jacob Markstrom saving the Flames skin with a HUGE late game save.

There’s just something about this Flames group that doesn’t play well with a lead or doesn’t know how to hold a lead, but they better learn and learn quick because games like these aren’t really what this team is built to play. The four penalties Calgary took weren’t exactly great, but considering how undisciplined Calgary has been, four is a decent start.

This victory is pretty big for the Flames as they now have won two in a row and dropping a division game before hitting the road for six games wouldn’t have been ideal. It also gets them two points closer to the second place LA Kings.

Not a work of art defensively for sure, but pumping in six goals on the night and getting points from 11 different players is something the Flames can build on for sure. Now it’s just time for Calgary to learn to get a lead and hold it, you know, like a normal hockey team.

Highlights

Final Thoughts

-Jonathan Huberdeau’s return was successful for sure. He scored the Flames first goal of the evening and was all over the puck and play throughout the night.

-Jonathan Quick was outstanding tonight and yes that sounds ridiculous because he gave up six goals, but it should have been worse. Quick absolutely shut down the Flames at big moments tonight when Calgary could have opened this one up and pushed towards close to nine goals. That’s how good he was tonight. And without those stops there’s zero chance the Kings get to within a goal as time expired.

-At the other end of the ice the same could be said for Jacob Markstrom. Will this one go on the fridge? Nope, but he held his own and shut the Kings down when it was needed, especially his huge stop in the final minutes of the game to keep the Flames lead at 6-5. Yes, he’d certainly like the Kopitar goal back, but otherwise he and Quick played well in a game that saw 11 total goals scored.

Flame Of The Game

Tyler Toffoli (F): 1 goal, 2 assists, 4 SOG

What’s Next?

11/17: Calgary Flames @ Tampa Bay Lightning

by Mark Parkinson