Connect with us

Calgary Flames

Colorado Outduels Calgary In Powerplay Showdown

Flames can’t stop taking penalties against good teams

Published

on

Calgary Flames 1 vs. Colorado Avalanche 2

Official Stats

Scoring

First

None

Second

CGY [1] Toffoli (18) (Andersson (37), Tkachuk (51)) 9:31 PPG

COL [1] Nichushkin (18) (Makar (50), Toews (36)) 13:46 PPG

Third

COL [2] Nichushkin (19) (Rantanen (46), Toews (37)) PPG

Game Notes

-Powerplay Indeed: With the Avs without Nathan MacKinnon on top of a handful of other every day players, and the Flames seemingly unable to solve Darcy Kuemper, tonight saw no 5-on-5 goals scored. The Flames opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 PP with Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar in the penalty box on a booming one-timer from Tyler Toffoli. The Avs responded 4 minutes later with Milan Lucic off for interference, before Nichushkin scored his second of the game midway through the third, with PK specialist Lindholm in the box for tripping.

-Darcy Keeper: After being unconventionally pulled in the first meeting of the season between these two teams, Darcy Kuemper has bounced back massively to stop 90 of 91 shots in the last two meetings. Now, that’s an awful lot of shots that the Flames have managed to get through a highly revered defence, but the lack of finish in these key games is frustrating. These teams won’t have the chance to meet again until the Western Conference Finals, which we can only hope is the case.

-Stay out of the box!: It’s easy to get sucked into the debate of whether certain penalties should or should not be called, but the fact is the Flames are in the top half of taking penalties in the league, and they’re giving the officials the chance to make calls. Despite knowing how deadly the Oiler’s powerplay is, they not only took a large quantity of penalties, but even threw in a 5-on-3. Tonight felt like much the same with Elias Lindholm reaching into a notoriously weaselly player in the offensive zone and taking a costly penalty that resulted in the game-winner.

by Gordie Taylor