Calgary Flames: Oliver Kylington scores first NHL goal against Predators

The Calgary Flames extended their win streak to five games tonight against the Nashville Predators as Oliver Kylington scored his first NHL goal.

The Calgary Flames have officially claimed the top Western Conference spot! And they’re now third place in the league with 40 points in 30 games. It was a battle for the top spot between the Flames, the Nashville Predators, and the Colorado Avalanche. With a win over the Preds tonight, this was huge. With them claiming that top spot in the Western Conference, this is the first time they have done that at this point in the season since 1993. Wow.

Oliver Kylington opened up the scoring just a minute into the hockey game to score his first of his NHL career. A big goal for the young rookie. Alan Quine, who was called up earlier today from Stockton due to the Mikael Backlund injury also scored his first goal as a Flame tonight.

The Flames are now on a five-game win streak and seven-game point streak. they’re also 9-1-1 in the last 11 games and are proving to be real candidates this year. Mike Smith is now on a six-game win streak as well. Let’s check out how the Flames got here tonight.

First period

About a minute into the game, the Calgary Flames top-line had a great chance as they tried going tic-tac-toe, but Mattias Ekholm did a good job of taking the puck away from Sean Monahan. But Elias Lindholm found the loose puck to get it over to Oliver Kylington who made it 1-0 and got his first NHL goal!

Shortly after, the Flames went on the powerplay, but missing Mark Giordano due to suspension hurt them on it. The second unit had a couple of good looks, but this PP went scoreless.

Later in the period, the Predators had their opportunity with the man-advantage, but they couldn’t get much going. They had one scoring chance, but no shots, and it also went scoreless.

With about five minutes left in the period, Ryan Johansen had a great chance on Mike Smith who dove and extended his body to make the save and keep it a one-goal game for the Flames.

Late in the period, Kylington had another great chance that was stopped by Juuse Saros. With less than a minute left in the period, Roman Josi shot the puck and Colton Sissons rushed right in front of Smith for the tip and tie the game up. Credit to Sissons for finding that puck and that’s not the fault of Smith.

After the first, the Preds outshot the Flames 7-4 and they outplayed the Flames at 5v5 even though it seemed like the Flames outplayed them in the first half of that period.

Second period

Early in the period, the Preds had a two-on-one breakaway but the puck was stopped by Smith. The Preds followed up with another quick chance, but again, it was stopped. The Calgary Flames started out this period somewhat sloppy which was definitely opposite than how the first period started.

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About a minute later, Andrew Mangiapane was all alone in front of Saros with a grade A chance, but he got a little too close to Saros, and it went wide. Mangiapane is still looking for his first NHL goal.

The Flames continued the pressure and had another couple of good chances, especially one from Sam Bennett. It was also clear that Garnet Hathaway started the second period on the second line with Matthew Tkachuk and Derek Ryan, so that line was a bit of a cluster.

Shortly after, Johnny Gaudreau had a great chance as he went through the Preds’ zone, but since he was taken down by Dan Hamhuis, the Flames got a powerplay.

On this PP, there was zero happening for the Flames. At one point, Nick Bonino had a slight shorthanded breakaway, but the Flames defenders came back and took away the quality chance, so Bonino didn’t get a great shot.

After some coincidental penalties, we saw some 4on4 action. The Flames had the majority of the chances on that 4on4, but nothing resulted in any goals. With about five minutes left, James Neal had a great chance to make it 2-1, but since it’s James Neal, it didn’t get past Saros. I’m convinced that Neal will never score another goal ever again.

With less than four minutes to go, the puck got to Monahan right in front of the net. He looked like he was maybe going to pass it, but opted to try and go top-shelf on his backhand, and it worked. 2-1 Flames!

The Flames had another few good chances from the second line from the second line in the dying minute of the period, but this period finished 2-1 for the Flames. This time, the Flames outshot the Preds 12-8 and played much better than the opening frame and completely outplayed the Preds at 5v5.

Third period

The third period started with a quick goal by the Predators from a goal by quick wrister from Craig Smith. That wasn’t a great goal to let in by Mike Smith.

About six minutes in, I guess changing up the second line worked. Tkachuk shot it from the point and with a good tip by Hathaway, the Calgary Flames went up 3-2. Shortly after, the Preds had a few great chances on Smith but one good save and another great block and this was still a one-goal game for the Flames.

Right after, Gaudreau had a great chance on Saros and tried going five-hole, but that shot was saved.

With a little less than eight to go, Rasmus Andersson made a great play in the offensive zone as the Preds were trying to clear. He stole the puck, quickly got it down to Alan Quine who backhanded it past Saros for his first of the season, in his first NHL game of the season, and his first goal as a member of the Flames. Quine was called up from Stockton earlier today.

With around five minutes to go, the Flames top-line was at it again and Gaudreau had the puck on the wing, passed it over to Monahan who basically had an open net, but somehow, the puck stayed out.

Later in the game, as Saros left for the extra attacker, from Gaudreau over to Lindholm and that’s a 5-2 hockey game. The Calgary Flames definitely came back in this game, and although the Preds overall had a better third period than the Flames at 5v5, the Flames came back well in the second half of the period.

They’ll be back in action tomorrow night as they travel to Edmonton for a Battle of Alberta matchup.