The Calgary Flames defeated the Dallas Stars tonight for the second time in just under a week with another game where they won after trailing in the third period. On the same day when the Flames traded Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev made his own splash by recording his 1500th career blocked shot after leaving the game on Tuesday against Vegas. After a disallowed goal, it was a major team effort from everyone tonight and the Flames absolutely deserved to come out with the victory.
Offence from the defence
The Flames have been getting a lot of offence from the backend as of late, MacKenzie Weegar scored the overtime winner against Vegas just two nights ago, and tonight the Flames’ first three goals came from their blue line. Chris Tanev notched his first of the season after he banked a pass off of Ryan Suter, Noah Hanifin buried a rebound late in the first for his fifth of the season, and Weegar once again came through in the big time with his sixth of the season that came late in third.
The Flames are not going to be a team that is going to score a ton of goals from just a few guys, they have shown early on this season that they will have to do it by committee if they are going to have any chance at making the playoffs this season. They are getting that from everyone so far and with the defence coming through as of late, they are all helping the scoring cause and it will need to continue if they want to keep themselves in the playoff hunt.
For reference on Weegar’s season, he is now tied for second overall on the team for goals—quite the start to the season after only potting a total of four last season. We all love a little Weegar in our lives, he has been nothing short of fantastic this year.
The overturned and almost overturned goals
The Flames fought through some adversity tonight. It was the definition of a wacky third period. Mason Marchment was awarded a penalty shot after Tanev took him down on a breakaway early in the third, which looked like just a body check. Nevertheless, Marchment buried the penalty shot and Dallas took the lead.
The Flames had plenty of chances, including a late third period power play, and after a couple of huge saves by Jacob Markstrom, it looked like Mikael Backlund had tied the game off of a deflection off a point shot from Hanifin. Unfortunately after review, it was determined that Jonathan Huberdeau received a hand pass from Backlund before the goal and it was overturned. The Flames were rightfully upset with the ruling as the puck hit Backlund before Huberdeau played it, but the Flames carried on and as they say, the puck doesn’t lie: Weegar tied the game just moments later.
Then moving onto overtime, Nazem Kardi turned a centring pass from Huberdeau into a goal to win the game for the Flames. As both teams were exiting the ice, the situation room in Toronto called for a review for a possible goaltender interference call on Kadri before the puck went in. Very clearly there was no interference on the play, and the goal stood, but it would be the most Flames thing of all time to have two goals waived off just mere minutes away from one another.
The Flames refuse to quit, no matter the circumstance
When the Flames started this season with a 2–7–1 record, many of us thought they would keel over and sink and be a lottery team by year’s end. The youth injection early on this month gave the Flames life, and they are now back to .500 while playing the best hockey they have played all year. No matter what the circumstance has been, they have refused to roll over and they are putting on a show every night.
Nikita Zadorov gets traded, and the team continues to win; Jacob Markstrom gets sick, they continue to win; with all the turmoil and distractions early on, they have fought through all of it and are showing more fight in just two months of this season then they did all of last year. It has truly been remarkable, and it finally looks like Ryan Huska is getting a grip on this team. The big distraction is out of the room (for the time being) and they are just playing their hearts out. It has been extremely fun to watch.
We don’t know how long this will last for, but we are seeing the team play with a lot of jump. Connor Zary was phenomenal again with some eye-popping rushes and Jonathan Huberdeau looks better and better with each passing day. The Flames have a lot positives to build on right now, but let’s see how they handle the tough schedule that December will bring them.
