Gaudreau Gets 40, But Flames Lose in OT Again

Calgary Flames 2 @ Minnesota Wild 3 (OT)

Official Stats

Scoring

First

None

Second

CGY [1]- Gaudreau (40) (Tkachuk (62), Zadorov (17)) 2:59

MIN [1]- Brodin (5) (Gaudreau (30), Greenway (17)) 6:02 PPG

Third

MIN [2]- Gaudreau (14) (N/A) 11:59

CGY [2]- Lindholm (42) (Zadorov (18), Gaudreau (75)) 17:04

OT

MIN [3]- Kaprizov (46) (Fiala (52), Hartman (30)) 0:44 PPG

Game Notes

-Tale of Two Gaudreaus: With absolutely no blood relation between the two, there’s not really any intrigue when it comes to the two facing each other. However, both Johnny and Frederick had quality games as only Gaudreaus can. Johnny became the third Flame this season to hit the 40 goal mark as he opened the scoring, while adding an assist later in the game. Frederick got an assist on the Wild’s evening tally on the powerplay, before giving them the lead midway through the third with his 14th of the year. Gaudreau, Lindholm, and Tkachuk became the third trio of Flames to hit at least 40 goals in a season, joining Reichel, Fleury, and Roberts (1993- 94) and Nieuwendyk, Loob, Bullard, and Mullen (1987-88).

-Career Highs: Of the 6 primary defencemen the Flames have iced this year, 5 had hit career highs in points in Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, Chris Tanev, Oliver Kylington, and Erik Gudbranson. Tonight, with his 17th assist of the season, Nikita Zadorov hit 21 points on the year and joined the other five as he set a new career high. He also added an assist on Lindholm’s goal late in the third, and quite frankly he played a vital role in both goals for Calgary tonight.

-OT Misery: It’s probably a good thing there’s no 3-on-3 OT in the playoffs for the once formidable Flames team, as they drop to 4-9 on the season. However overtime has been a huge problem for the Flames in nearly all their recent playoff series so getting that extra frame under control has to be a priority. Calgary went 1-1 in the 2015 playoffs, and hasn’t won a playoff OT game since Game 3 against Anaheim. They went 0-1 in 2017, 0-2 in 2019, and lost their only OT game against Dallas in 2020. Had they won any of those games, those series would have looked a lot different.

by Gordie Taylor