Calgary Flames: David Rittich has bad giveaway in OT, Dallas Stars win

The Calgary Flames came back from behind to tie this game up and even got a lead in the third period against the Dallas Stars, but they lost in overtime.

The Calgary Flames played an overall great game against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday evening, but lost in overtime. The Stars scored a quick goal to open this game up and scored just 24 seconds into OT.

Unfortunately for David Rittich, who has been incredible this season and played a good game as well, had a bad giveaway behind the net when trying to play the puck. He couldn’t make up for that giveaway and after a slight bump, he also couldn’t quite get reset and let the game-winner in.

The Flames still lead the Pacific Division, mainly due to the division being quite terrible this year.

Let’s check out how the Flames got here tonight.

First period

Early in the game, the Stars were battling for the puck behind the Calgary Flames net and Jason Spezza somewhat came out of nowhere and scored just 41 seconds in. After this goal, there was some good pace to the game with the Flames getting a the majority of possession.

The Flames then applied some good pressure and as a result, the Stars took a penalty. The Flames’ powerplay looked incredible. They had about a good 1:40 of zone time, and practically all of it by the top unit, and they had some great chances, but a few were blocked and deflected wide, so no goal. Shortly after, the Stars took another penalty, and this one wasn’t as much zone time for the Flames and they didn’t manage as many chances, so this one also went scoreless.

A couple minutes later, the Flames went on their third powerplay of the period. But due to some good penalty-killing by the Stars, the Flames again went scoreless on this PP and couldn’t manage any shots.

Later in the period, Rasmus Andersson did a great job of just barely keeping the puck in the Stars’ zone and Garnet Hathaway snuck the puck past Anton Khudobin. 1-1 game.

Right after that goal, the Stars had some good chances of their own and had some great zone time. David Rittich had to be sharp and make a few good saves before the Flames could finally clear the zone.

This period finished 1-1 and the Flames outshot the Stars 12-10. This period finished quite even at 5v5 when it came to possession, however the Stars had the edge in terms of scoring chances and high-danger chances with the Flames having most of theirs on the PP.

Second period

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The Calgary Flames started the second line with lots of jump. The second line had some great chances followed by the top-line. It was basically all Flames for the first minute and a half of the period. Right after, Derek Ryan fell in the O-zone and the Stars had an odd-man rush. A drop pass to Blake Comeau and Rittich had to be sharp.

About three minutes into the period, the Flames took a penalty so the Stars got their first powerplay of the game. The Flames did an excellent job of not even letting the Stars get any clean entries and when they were able to enter, the Flames took the puck away and the Stars didn’t set up once.

There was a bit of a slowed-down pace for a lot of the period, but the Flames were, again, getting some good zone time.

Late in the period, the Stars got another powerplay. However this time was much more successful than their first. They won the initial faceoff and it was all them until Jamie Benn just taps in a pass from Tyler Seguin and they’re up 2-1 with less than two to go in the period.

Right after that goal, the Flames pushed back hard and had a few good chances, but this period finished 2-1 for the Stars. The Flames had a big edge over the Stars that period at 5v5 in almost every way.

Third period

The Calgary Flames started the third period out strong, yet again, but they couldn’t find the back of the net. It was also clear that Bill Peters played around with the lines a little (like he usually does). Matthew Tkachuk was moved to the top line, James Neal was put on the second line, and Elias Lindholm was put on the third line.

Early in the period, they got another chance with the man-advantage. The second PP unit looked slightly different, but the Flames still couldn’t capitalize on their fourth powerplay of the game.

A few minutes later, the Flames went on their FIFTH powerplay of the game. And finally they were able to make something of this. A nice pass to the left point from Lindholm over to Johnny Gaudreau who quickly wristed one past Khudobin and it’s a tie-game.

The Flames were buzzing right after this goal and kept the pressure. Khudobin made a bad mistake of instead of holding the puck, he let it go which led to a couple more good scoring chances by the Flames. And he paid for it because Mark Girodano got one from the point and just wired it past Khudobin. Just like that, about a minute after tying the game, the Flames made it 3-2.

…But about two minutes later, Gavin Bayreuther shot the puck which deflected off of Alexander Radulov‘s leg and in so it’s a tie game again with over six minutes to go. This period keeps getting interesting.

With 16 seconds left in the game, Noah Hanifin had a great chance on the Stars that snuck through Khudobin’s and it was between him and the goal line, but Radulov was there to clear the puck, so this one needed extra time. The Flames outshot the Stars 13-6 this period and dominated by a large amount (again) at 5v5 in basically every area.

OT

The Stars won the intial faceoff. At one point, Rittich left the crease and went to play the puck behind the net. He somewhat gave the puck away and then as he’s in the crease, he was bumped by Benn which let Seguin rip one past him. After further review, they detemined that he had enough time to reset so it was a good goal. Rittich was not very happy about that one.

It was a quick goal for the Stars to start the game and a quick one to end the game. The Calgary Flames, overall, played a great game, so trying to recreate some 2017-18 Flamesmagic, they lost this one.

At least with the San Jose Sharks loss, the Flames are still first in the division. And they still got a point. Silver linings.