Calgary Flames tie game with 7 seconds left, win in OT. Are you kidding?

The Calgary Flames were down two goals, tied the game with two goals after taking out the goaltender, and won this one in overtime.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened in this game. The Calgary Flames, overall, played a great game against the Philadelphia Flyers. But throw in some Mike Smith in the mix and you get a game where you get scored on four times on five shots.

The Flames outplayed the Flyers in every period essentially, especially in the third period where they had a few powerplays. But nothing was going then.

Then, as they took out the goalie for the extra attacker, they scored one goal with about a minute left by Rasmus Andersson, his first of his young NHL career. And another with just seven seconds left from Sean Monahan, his 20th goal of the season. Then, all it took was 35 seconds to win this one in overtime. Let’s check out how the Flames got here tonight.

First period

About three minutes in, the best chance came from the Flyers’ fourth line from Phil Varone, in just his second game of the season, but the puck hit the post. About five minutes in, Mark Giordano took a penalty so the Flyers got the first powerplay.

The Flyers had some decent chances in the first half of the PP and one that required a good save by Mike Smith, so this PP went scoreless.

After that successful penalty-kill, it seemed like the Calgary Flames woke up and had a lot more energy. They had some decent chances before the second-ish line had some sustained pressure which paid off. After multiple chances and shot, Matthew Tkachuk had the puck, found Sam Bennett who finally got one past Anthony Stolarz to open the scoring. That was Bennett’s first goal in nine games.

Giordano got caught in the offensive zone and lost the puck which resulted in an odd-man rush for the Flyers, but credit to Giordano who rushed back to take away the pass and the scoring chance. Right after, the Flames top-line was rushing into the Flyers’ zone, as Johnny Gaudreau was falling along the boards, Radko Gudas was also going to the boards and it looked like his knee hit Gaudreau’s head. Gaudreau was on the ice for a bit and left right away to the locker room. To be fair, Gudas was already going towards Gaudreau before he started falling and seemed like he didn’t want to hit him once he noticed Gaudreau falling, so this isn’t his fault by any means.

Late in the period, the Flyers took a penalty so the Flames got their first powerplay of the game. While the Flames second unit started and had some great chances with some good zone time, this powerplay went scoreless.

This period finished 1-0 for the Flames as they outshot the Flyers 12-8. The Flames also had a slight edge at 5v5 in terms of attempts and scoring chances.

Second period

Gaudreau was back on the bench to start the second period which was a relief to everyone. Early in the period, Travis Hamonic jumped in on the rush, shot the puck which went wide, which resulted in a Flyers chance. From Claude Giroux over to Travis Sanheim and he had a nice shot to get it past Smith. 1-1 game.

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The Flyers seemed to get some jump after that goal, but nothing resulted from it. The Calgary Flames top line then had a good chance in the offensive zone, but Sean Monahan accidentally tripped a player so the Flames went on the PK.

As the Flyers had a good chance, the puck was blocked and Giordano along with Derek Ryan had a two-on-one breakaway. Looking like he may pass, Gio decided to shoot instead and it paid off. He wristed one past Stolarz for the 2-1 lead. That’s Gio’s 30th point of the season, becoming the fifth Flame to record 30 points this season — the only team to have five players with 30 points.

On the same powerplay, only 13 seconds later, James Van Riemsdyk scored so this became a tie game again.

Then, just 32 seconds later, Hamonic fell in his own zone as he was coming back defensively, and as a result, Sean Couturier tipped a puck in from Jakub Voracek, so the Flyers took their first lead of the game. But they weren’t done.

1:16 later, Dale Weise got a big softie past Smith, so you can probably imagine what Flames Twitter was like, with Smith always on thin ice with them. That’s now a 4-2 lead for the Flyers and four goals this period on just five shots.

After some good and sustained pressure by the Flames with a few great chances and Stolarz making some great saves, it resulted in a Flames powerplay. On that PP, Tkachuk fed it over to Monahan who was in the middle between the circles, one of his most dangerous spots and just snapped it past Stolarz to cut the lead to one.

Late in the period, the Flames took a penalty so the Flyers got a late powerplay. It went scoreless so this period finished 4-3 for the Flyers, but the Flames outshot 10-6 and the Flames outplayed them at 5v5.

Third period

David Rittich started the third period, hoping to spark some sort of comeback. Mike Smith was also not seen on the bench, so some rumours came to play that he may be in the locker room injured. Early in the period, the Flyers took a penalty so the Calgary Flames tried to tie this up on the powerplay.

On the PP, Monahan had a glorious chance to even things up, the Stolarz stopped it. The Flames had a couple of other good chances and had a total of four shots on that PP, but the score remained the same.

A few minutes later, the Flames had another powerplay and had some great looks on it as well. Unfortunately, they couldn’t score on it either, but they’ve been pushing a lot this period. Up until now, it’s been mostly Flames.

As the powerplay was ending, the Flyers took yet another penalty so the Flames got their fifth powerplay of the game. On this chance, the Flames didn’t have as many quality chances as they did on their previous PPs. Late on the PP, Noah Hanifin lost the puck at the blue-line which resulted in a breakaway for Couturier who got one past Rittich. 5-3 game for the Flyers.

Shortly after, the Flyers took yet ANOTHER penalty so the Flames had a powerplay to try and get back in the game, but unfortunately, Stolarz brought his A-game.

Later, as the Flames took Rittich out for the extra attacker, Rasmus Andersson shot the puck from the point which deflected off a Flyer and in the net. That’s Andersson’s first NHL goal and the Flames cut the lead to just one with a little over a minute left in the game.

With seconds left in the game, Tkachuk made a smart play by just throwing the puck to the net, Stolarz let out a bad rebound, and Monahan found it and tied the game with just seven seconds left in the game. Are you kidding me?

That’s Monahan’s second of the game and 20th of the season. So let’s head to overtime.

Overtime

The Flyers won the initial faceoff so they had possession. They had an early shot on Rittich who made a great save which resulted in a chance for the Calgary Flames. From Monahan over to Gaudreau who got the initial shot, which was saved, then Gio tried for the rebound which was saved, and then Gaudreau got that third puck which got past Stolarz.

Wow. What a game.

To be quite honest, I truly didn’t think the Flames were going to tie this one, but never say never with this team. The Flames outplayed the Flyers in every period, especially in the third period.

The Flames now lead the NHL with seven wins when trailing the second period. They’ll be back on Saturday morning/afternoon for another matchup against the Minnesota Wild.