Flames Visual Recap 53: Calgary loses in overtime, home winning streak snapped at 11 games

The Calgary Flames returned to the Saddledome with their sights set on setting a new franchise record of 12 straight wins at home. The Montreal Canadiens came to town to try to stop that from happening, led by new head coach and 2004 public enemy number one Martin St. Louis. Tyler Toffoli would face off against his former team for the first time.

First period

The Flames didn’t start the game with their usual pace, but were able to get on the scoreboard first just past the halfway mark of the first period. Andrew Mangiapane threaded the puck past two defenders and Blake Coleman opened the scoring with an easy tap-in goal right at the crease.

The Flames then got into some penalty troubles and found themselves in down two skaters, but despite intense pressure from the Canadiens, the Flames killed off both penalties. They then went right onto the power play instead. However, as the Flames’ power play expired, Jeff Petry tied the game up at one goal apiece.

Second period

In the second, the Flames got their lead back on a beauty of a goal from Johnny Gaudreau. The goal tied Gaudreau with Kent Nilsson for sixth in all-time franchise scoring with 562 points.

Not long after, the Flames were back on the penalty kill. Markstrom cleared the puck from behind his net, and Mangiapane was able to corral it in the neutral zone, accelerate into the zone, and beat Andrew Hammond glove side with a nifty top shelf backhand goal.

Calgary didn’t exactly escape their penalty problems though, as they ended up on another 3v5 penalty kill with a tripping penalty by Jacob Markstrom and a high sticking call to Nikita Zadorov. Unfortunately, they couldn’t kill off Montreal’s second two-man advantage, and Nick Suzuki scored to draw the Canadiens back within one.

Third period

Early in the third period, Montreal tied the game up with a goal from Ben Chiarot. Despite the goal and previous trade rumours, he’s not exactly a defender the Flames should be inquiring about.

Allowing the Canadiens to tie the game woke the Flames up as they started playing with much more urgency and created a few good chances immediately following the tying goal. However, the Flames were unsuccessful despite their flurry of good chances.

Then with just under three minutes to go, Mike Hoffman scored on a play where Calgary’s defence simply broke down and got the Canadiens their first lead of the game.

With their net empty, Calgary’s hopes of securing a new franchise record was in major jeopardy. Two straight icings by Montreal later and the Flames had their best skaters out on the ice against a tired Canadiens unit. Being in perfect position to receive a pass from Mangiapane, Elias Lindholm tied the game up with a wide open net to shoot at. Just like that, the game was 4–4. Overtime up next.

Overtime

One minute into overtime, Chiarot scored his second of the game on a two-on-one. Game over. Flames end up tying and not surpassing their franchise mark of 11 wins on home ice, but manage to extend their home point streak to 12 games. Overall, it was a sloppy game by Calgary. They didn’t have much structure to their game and it showed on the ice and on the scoreboard.

Check out the data visualisations from the game below.