The Calgary Flames kicked off a five-game Eastern road trip with Saturday night hockey against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both teams had travel though, as the Penguins returned home after playing one day prior as well.
The first period was riddled with bad penalties and the Flames found themselves shorthanded for a big chunk of it. Under 14 minutes of the opening frame were played at 5v5 and the bulk of the special teams time was spent penalty killing for Calgary.
For parts of the game, Jacob Markstrom kept the game locked down and kept the Flames in it. Across two games now, Markstrom has shown signs of being back to his normal self where he is in fact an above-average starter. Thankfully, late in the second period, the first goal of the game came at the hands of Matt Coronato, who ripped off an insane shot to break the deadlock.
Things were good heading into the second intermission, but the third period did not go right for the Flames at all. The Penguins scored twice in the first minute, and totalled four straight goals to turn the game completely around. Late in the third the Flames potted one to make it 4–2, but it was too little too late.
Despite catching the Penguins in the second half of a back-to-back, the Flames weren’t able to generate effective offence. Their plays werenot as streamlined as they would have hoped for and a lot of odd passes and missed reads were the theme for Calgary. See in the charts below: the Flames had nearly double the shot share at 5v5 (63–33 Corsi), but when looking at shot locations, the Penguins had far more effective shots. It’s one thing to get shots off, but if they’re scattered all over the ice then it’s not going to work as well, if at all in modern hockey.
Charts from the setback are here.
Game events
Goals
| Goal | Assists | Time | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Coronato (PPG) | Elias Lindholm, Rasmus Andersson | 18:22 | 2nd | CGY 1 – 0 PIT |
| Bryan Rust | Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel | 00:18 | 3rd | CGY 1 – 1 PIT |
| Reilly Smith | Evgeni Malkin, Ryan Graves | 00:41 | 3rd | CGY 1 – 2 PIT |
| Jake Guentzel | Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby | 05:50 | 3rd | CGY 1 – 3 PIT |
| Evgeni Malkin | Reilly Smith | 14:14 | 3rd | CGY 1 – 4 PIT |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Andrew Mangiapane, Noah Hanifin | 16:05 | 3rd | CGY 2 – 4 PIT |
| Bryan Rust | Unassisted | 19:38 | 3rd | CGY 2 – 5 PIT |
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All situations Corsi
5v5 Corsi
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