Calgary Flames Home Form Continues Against Sharks
By Luke Ryan
A confident Calgary Flames performance saw them see off the San Jose Sharks 4-2 extending their run of fine home form to seven wins out of seven at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
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It wasn’t just the usual suspects pitching in with the goals either; with secondary scoring players in the likes of Mikael Backlund, Markus Granlund and Michael Frolik lighting the lamp.
The San Jose Sharks are no walkover, so the performance had to be well-rounded and that it was; Karri Ramo again showed why the team has been right to keep him in the net, notching up another solid win with 32 saves.
Likewise, captain Mark Giordano pitched in with a pair of assists, something that had been missing from his game in the earlier part of the year.
In a break from seeming recent form, it wasn’t the Calgary Flames that had to fight for a comeback victory at any point; taking the lead only to be tied twice before running rampant in the second period.
The second was the only period they made their dominance felt, as the only period to notch more shots than their opponent and as it goes, two of those went in.
Right now, we’re pulling out of the hole that we created for ourselves – Bob Hartley (NHL.com)
Calgary Flames head coach, Bob Hartley put it best with his comments on the NHL website stating ‘right now, we’re pulling out of the hole that we created for ourselves.’
That the Calgary Flames are; when coupling this result with their two recent comeback victories over the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars and they’re looking more like the team of last year and not the basement-dweller that the standings would suggest.
Even more impressive is the fact that the San Jose Sharks dominated them just a short week or so ago; a 5-2 rout at the SAP Center.
It might well have been two different teams this time out – Tomas Hertl, one of the thorns in the Calgary Flames side last time was silenced and ended a minus two on plus/minus scores, likewise for Tommy Wingels.
Should this form be able to continue as the month wears on, we could stop seeing the Calgary Flames as a key player in the Draft Lottery sweepstakes and start seeing them more as a team with an outside chance at a wild card spot in the playoffs.
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