Calgary Flames: Johnny Gaudreau extends point streak vs. Capitals

The Calgary Flames regain a win-streak with a win against the Washington Capitals. Their second win against this team this season.

The Calgary Flames were looking to get another win-streak going tonight against the Washington Capitals. These two teams have already played almost a month ago where the Flames won 2-1. Johnny Gaudreau had a point in that game on Oct. 29. He’s also had a point in every game since.

He enters this game on a nine-game point-streak (five-game goal-streak) with 17 points in that stretch. The longest active point streak in the NHL right now. Micheal Ferland also enters this game on a six-game point-streak.

Sean Monahan is coming off his first career hat-trick. So safe to say this line has been on fire as of late.

Related Story: Sean Monahan scores first hat trick in win vs Flyers

First period

The Washington Capitals got on the board early, with a goal by Lars Eller at the 1:09 mark. The duo of Travis Hamonic and T.J. Brodie have been somewhat struggling as of late. And they got an unlucky chance tonight as well with that goal from Eller.

But the team definitely woke up and they got that goal back from none other than Johnny Gaudreau. Who now extends his point-streak to 10 games and continues to have the longest active point streak in the NHL.

The Flames had more push back in the second half of the period and they managed to kill off a penalty as well! I know, I’m shocked too.

The Flames also had two powerplay opportunities and none of them were quite strong. The second one had some push from the second PP unit, but alas, no score. This game would remain tied at one apiece after 20 minutes of play.

Second period

The Calgary Flames completely dominated the Caps in the second period. They had an early powerplay. And after some shots by the Flames, Braden Holtby somewhat lost sight of the puck and Monahan pot the goal in. With an assist by Johnny Gaudreau, he now has two points in this game along with Monahan who has two points.

Every time Johnny Gaudreau has at least two points in a game, the Flames are 8-1-0. Around the midway mark, Johnny came back and even made a great defensive play of Alexander Ovechkin who would have had a great scoring chance.

Later in the period, the Flames took a penalty, which they killed off quite successfully. It was a big kill for the Flames to not let the Caps get much of a chance. Later, Johnny Gaudreau had a great wraparound chance, but Holtby got back in the last millisecond to save it which was his save of the game until that point.

At one point, Troy Brouwer also made a good defensive play with just three minutes left of the period on Evgeny Kuznetsov to take his pass from Ovechkin away. The Flames outshot the Caps 13-6 and outcorsi’d the Caps 19-12.

This game would head to the third period with the Flames up 2-1. The Flames are 6-0-0 when leading heading into the third period.

Calgary Flames

Third period

The Calgary Flames started out the period with a penalty to captain Mark Giordano. And the Capitals definitely woke up this time for their powerplay. They had a few opportunities and Mike Smith had to be sharp. They kept that pressure after the powerplay ended and again, Smith had to be sharp. But after that, it was basically all Flames.

Brett Connolly took a high-sticking call early on and the Flames would head to the powerplay for the fourth time that night. And with a smart move by the Flames coaching staff to start the second PP unit first, the Flames increased their lead to two with a powerplay goal by Mikael Backlund. That’s now two powerplay goals in one game. They had three in the game vs. the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. Safe to say that their special teams are slightly improving.

Right as Backlund score, the Flames would head right back to the man-advantage with a slashing call on former Flame, Alex Chiasson. With some good pressure on that PP, the Flames would get on top again with a goal by the captain. This wouldn’t be a powerplay goal since the goal came one second after the PP expired. But it was from the pressure of their PP, which is a great sign for their special teams. While it seemed like the Flames were dominating, the Caps still had the edge at 5v5 during the third period.

With being down three goals, the Caps decided to take out Holtby with a little over three minutes for the extra attacker. But to no avail, the Caps couldn’t capitalize. The Calgary Flames take this one 4-1.

With a game-winning goal by Monahan, he now has four game-winning goals in 10 games against the Capitals and now has five this season, which is tied for first place. He also had the GWG in the other game against the Caps this season.

The Flames outshot the Capitals 39-30 and outcorsi’d them 47-37 (5v5).

Mike Smith made 29 saves on 30 shots and Holtby stopped 35 of 39. Johnny Gaudreau is averaging two points per game in November with 16 points in eight games, which also leads all skaters in the month of November. He’s still third in points with 31 points in 20 games. He’s more than halfway to his point total of last season and it’s only November.

Johnny Hockey’s on pace to break the 100-point mark. Sean Monahan is on pace to break the 40-goal mark and is averaging over a point per game with 22 points in 20 games. This was a great win for the Calgary Flames and they’re now 2-1-0 on this road trip. They’re now 7-0-0 when leading after two periods of play as well. the Flames have also won seven of their last nine games.

Next: Three stars of the week Nov. 13-19

You can put it in the win column, Calgary!