Calgary Flames beat St. Louis Blues 7-4 as Sam Bennett finally scores

The Calgary Flames finish off their homestand going 5-2-0 with a 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues. And Sam Bennett finally scores his first goal of the season.

Get the monkey off your back now, Sam. The Calgary Flames defeated the top team in the Western Conference, the St. Louis Blues 7-4 to finish off their homestand. This was a successful one – going 5-2-0 during these seven games. Something the Flames definitely needed.

And Sam Bennett finally scores a goal! After going 15 games without scoring a single point, he finally got one on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings when Mark Jankowski scored his first ever NHL goal. We’ll talk more about those two in a bit.

First period

The St. Louis Blues got on the board early on after a scrum in front of the Flames left that led to some 4on4 hockey. And none other than Vladimir Tarasenko, who’s currently tied in sixth in player scoring. Their lead wouldn’t last long though because Jankowski gets the Flames on the board during the same 4on4. That’s his second goal of his NHL career and second in as many games.

Related Story: Jaromir Jagr and Mark Jankowski score some firsts

Later in the same period, Jankowski would get another. His first ever multi-point and multi-goal game of his career. Bennett would get another assist, now adding two to his stats this year. I don’t want to say it’s because of me, but it’s because of me.

Somewhere, Jay Feaster is leaning back in a chair with a glass of whiskey and a smile on his face.

Their lead wouldn’t last too long because the Flames would get a penalty within the last five minutes of the period. Alex Steen took a shot, his stick broke, but that ended up benefitting the Blues because the puck ended up going right over to Jaden Schwartz who wristed it in. The game is now tied a two apiece.

Schwartz and Tarasenko are two of the highest scoring duos in the league right now. It’s no surprise they were able to get on the board.

Calgary Flames

Second period

To everyone’s surprise, Eddie Lack started the second period. Nobody quite knew for sure what was going on, but it was assumed it was an incident that happened late in the first period where Matthew Tkachuk sort of fell of Mike Smith‘s shoulder. Smith would finish the period, but the Flames haven’t yet specified what it is. Just that he’s still under evaluation.

While the second period remained scoreless, the Flames had quite a bit of jump. Less than midway through the second period, the Flames already had 35 shot attempts. They had one period where they were in the Blues zone for a good two minutes just hammering the shots while on the PP. But nobody told the Flames where the net was. Lots of those shots went wide (Rick Ball is getting excited).

That was about as eventful as the second period was. The Flames that period at 5v5 had 19 shot attempts compared to the Blues’ 9.

Third period

Alright so now we get into the fun and the wild. After an uneventful second period, both teams decided to change that up a bit and basically exchange goals. This started with a shot a little over five minutes into the period where Mark Jankowski shot, looking for the hat trick, but Sam Bennett got the rebound. That’s right! Sam Bennett finally got a goal! It only took 17 games, but he did it!

At the 11:46 mark, Steen shot the puck which deflected off of Micheal Ferland‘s stick and into the net. That one must sting for Ferly. The Flames would end up getting a power play shortly after and less than a minute later, Ferland gives the Flames the lead again. He redeemed himself. Johnny Gaudreau assisted on that goal which now brings him to a seven-game point streak.

But like I said, these teams loved going back and forth with the goals. About ten seconds later, Dougie Hamilton, unfortunately, had a poor turnover in the neutral zone that led to a two-on-one for the Blues. And Tarasenko had a rocket of a shot to the net. Nothing Eddie Lack could do in that case.

But again, we know how this story goes. Less than two minutes later, there was a turnover and the Flames had three players going into the Blues zone. With a nice pass from Troy Brouwer (that’s weird to say) to Kris Versteeg, the Flames would be back on top with a 5-4 lead and a little over five minutes to go!

That was Versteeg’s 20th game-winning-goal. I told you this was a wild period.

With two minutes left in the period, the Calgary Flames had yet another chance. It started with a two-on-one with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, but Johnny didn’t quite have a lane to pass to Monny. So he waits and waits, goes around the net, spots captain Mark Giordano who waits and waits, and eventually, Johnny Hockey puts the puck past Jake Allen to give the Flames a two-goal lead with only two minutes to go.

Michael Frolik would later pot an empty-netter to give the Flames the 7-4 lead and end the game.

All in all, the Calgary Flames played a great game against a strong St. Louis Blues team. So much that my dad even quietly said to himself, “I can’t believe they got six goals against the Blues.” I heard you, dad. the Flames have now scored six goals in consecutive games and their secondary scoring has definitely done a complete 180.

Next: Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan: Dynamic duo

The Calgary Flames beat some tough competitors in this homestand and some of the best in the league right now with the Washington Capitals, the defending champs, the New Jersey Devils, and now, the St. Louis Blues. This win was exactly what they needed before heading off on the road again.