Calgary Flames win six straight games vs. Florida Panthers

The Calgary Flames head into this game on a season-high five-game win streak and will look to add on that vs. the Florida Panthers tonight.

The Calgary Flames are having the best run of their season so far. They’re currently on a five-game win streak after defeating the best in the league last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning. A six-game win streak could be in store for them tonight as they take on the Florida Panthers.

The team isn’t the only one on a streak, though. Micheal Ferland, Johnny Gaudreau, and Sean Monahan are all on five-game point streaks heading into this game. Ferland is also on a four-game goal streak and has opened up the scoring for the Flames in the last four games.

David Rittich will get the nod tonight as Mike Smith played last night. Rittich is 3-0-1 in four starts so far this season and has been an extremely reliable backup. Let’s check out how this game went down.

Related Story: Flames improve to five-game win streak vs. league-best

First period

Yesterday, the first period started out with Micheal Ferland getting a goal 29 seconds into the game. Today, he drew a penalty 41 seconds in with a penalty to Aaron Ekblad. So he’s been quite good early on it seems. The Calgary Flames went on the powerplay early, but then the Flames took a penalty and we got some 4on4 before going on the penalty-kill. Nothing resulted from either powerplay for either team. But on that Panthers powerplay, David Rittich had to make a sharp save and he was calm early on.

There was a bit of end to end action for both teams. Before the midway mark, Ferland drew another penalty and again, on Ekblad. The Flames go on the powerplay but unfortunately, no goal.

At one point, Gaudreau and Monahan had a good chance, but that was rude on James Reimer for stopping it, in my opinion. Around the six-minute mark, the top line again was getting a few chances, but no goal.

David Rittich continued to be sharp and stopped all 13 shots he faced that first period while Reimer stopped all 12 shots he faced. The first period was quite evenly played, even end-to-end action, basically even shots, and the Panthers had 20 shot attempts (5v5) compared to the Flames’ 19. The Flames, however, did have more scoring chances (5v5) than the Panthers, with 12 compared to the Panthers’ nine.

Calgary Flames

Second period

The Panthers had a late powerplay in period one, so they’ll start this period on the powerplay. After some talking to from Glen Gulutzan on the bench to really strengthen their penalty-kill because it could be a big one, it didn’t quite work. Evgeni Dadonov scores early in the second period on the PP with Troy Brouwer unable to clear the zone.

But no need to fret, because 33 seconds later, Monahan ties things up with a great backhand pass from Dougie Hamilton that led to an even better one-timer from Monahan.

About five minutes into the game, Rittich again made a tremendous save on a rebound shot and brought his game tonight, as he’s done in every start so far. Later, Matthew Tkachuk got the puck to Travis Hamonic, who shot it, then Tkachuk got the rebound on that and gave the Calgary Flames their first lead of the game. But credit to the fourth line, who had a great shift right before that goal and kept the pressure on in the offensive zone.

Then TJ BRODIE FOUGHT?!?!?! WHAT!? EXCUSE ME???

The Flames went back on the powerplay again as a result of that. Cue the disappointment. But wait… the Flames… scored on the powerplay? Two games in a row? What is happening? Johnny Gaudreau nets it in and gives the Flames a 3-1 lead with less than four minutes remaining in the second period. Monny and Gaudreau have extended their point streaks to six games.

The Flames lead 3-1, but the Panthers had the edge in possession at even-strength and in shots. They outshot the Flames 19-9 that period and had 16 shots-attempts (5v5) compared to the Flames’ 16. But all that quite matters is the score at the end of the day, so the Flames will head into the final frame feeling confident.

Third period

The third period, again, started with some end-to-end action. At one point early on, the Panthers were pushing and, again, David Rittich had to be sharp. He’s absolutely brought his game tonight. About eight minutes into the third period and Aleksander Barkov had already played three minutes. So the Panthers were pushing and trying to find ways to find the back of the net.

13 minutes into the period and Dadonov scores his second of the game and makes it a one-goal game. The Calgary Flames are used to this story and they need to get some pushback now. And again, David Rittich had to be sharp basically all period.

There wasn’t a whole lot happening in the third period besides that goal. After the Panthers took out Reimer for the extra attacker, they almost tied things up. But credit to Matthew Tkachuk who showed a great effort to get the puck out and get it to Mikael Backlund for an empty-net goal to solidify their lead.

Rittich tonight stopped 41 of 43 shots to earn the third star of the game. He’s now 4-0-1 in five starts so far this season and has really been proving himself as a worthy NHL backup. In those five starts, he has 0.942 sv%, with all his starts coming on the road, he has one of the best sv% of all NHL goaltenders on the road. Of course, right after Mike Smith, of course.

This marked the Calgary Flames sixth win in a row. They’re now only one point back of the LA Kings. Albeit, they have two games on hand, but eight days ago, they were 11 points back. There’s also this:

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The Flames are on a roll and if they can make it seven straight on Sunday before their bye-week, they may end up getting into that second place Pacific Division spot.