Calgary Flames: Elias Lindholm ties career-high in goals vs St. Louis Blues

That’s now a three-game win streak for the Calgary Flames as they won against the St. Louis Blues and they’ve won eight of their last nine games.

The Calgary Flames have yet another dominating score with a 7-2 win against the St. Louis Blues. Most of those goals came in the first period when they scored four goals in the first period and played much more defence in the second and third periods.

The Flames are now on a three-game win streak and are 8-1-1 in their last ten games. With 46 points in 34 games, they’re now second in the league. Who would have called this in the off-season, hey?

Elias Lindholm scored a shorthanded goal today and he tied his career-high in goals with 17 in just 34 games. Mark Giordano had two points tonight to tie lead in the league among all defencemen. He also reached 35 points, making the Flames the only team with five players that have 35+ points. No other team in the league even have more than four players with 30+ points.

Let’s check out how they got here tonight.

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First period

Early in the game, Matthew Tkachuk got around some players and had a great chance on Jake Allen, but Allen absolutely robbed that chance. No problem because shortly after, the Calgary Flames went on the powerplay.

Mark Giordano had the initial shot and Tkachuk does what he does best, being planted right in front of the goaltender. He easily found the rebound and put the Flames up 1-0. That’s Tkachuk’s first goal against the Blues, his hometown team!

Around the midway mark, the Blues had their chance on the powerplay. But they probably wish they didn’t. Elias Lindholm stole the puck from Colton Parayko and went down the ice for a shorthanded goal. That’s his 17th goal of the season and he tied a career-high in just 34 games.

A few minutes later, the Blues took another penalty so the Flames had another chance with the man-advantage. Early on the powerplay, Johnny Gaudreau got the puck to Giordano at the point who blasted it past Allen for the 3-0 lead. Allen was basically screened by his own player. That’s Gio’s second point of the game and 11th point in four games and a period. Oh, captain my captain!

Less than two minutes later, with a good shot by Noah Hanifin that rebounded with a weird bounce, Alan Quine got the puck and made it 4-0 with 1:35 to go in the period.

The first period finished 4-0 for the Flames as they outshot the Blues 16-6. Although the Flames had three goals on special teams, they still completely dominated at 5v5 in basically every category. Poor Blues.

Second period

The Blues made a goaltending change to start the second period by putting in Jordan Binnington. They started this period much better than the last with a great chance by Vladimir Tarasenko which David Rittich got his pad down to stop it.

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Shortly after, the Calgary Flames were trying to make a lineup change which the Blues took advantage. They basically had a three-on-one chance with Jordan Nolan getting the shot, the rebound went right to Oskar Sundqvist who had an open net and made it 4-1.

While the Blues had a couple of good chances after, Derek Ryan did great on the forecheck. He battled for the puck, had two players on him, but found Gaudreau who was coming off the bench and got it past Binnington to restore the four-goal lead.

Later in the period, the Flames went on the penalty-kill. While they didn’t score this time, they still did a decent job of killing it off. Right as the powerplay expired, Oliver Kylington jumped up into the play and had a good chance on Binnington, but this game remained 5-1.

With about five minutes left, the Flames found themselves somewhat disorganized and Ryan O’Reilly was one on one with Rittich, but he shot it wide.

Late in the period, the Flames got their first powerplay of the period. They had a couple of decent chances, especially from the first unit, but nothing high-danger. They managed just one shot on that PP. Right after the penalty expired, Mark Jankowski tried clearing the puck from their zone, but nobody was there to clear it, so it went right to a Blues player. Vince Dunn got the puck over to Tyler Bozak who cut the lead to three again.

This period finished 5-2 for the Flames. The Blues pushed back hard and the Flames didn’t play that great of a period. The Blues outshot the Flames 16-9 and slightly outplayed them at 5v5.

Third period

The third period started with a couple of good chances by the Blues (again) and Rittich had to make a couple of good chances about two minutes in. The Blues then had a two-on-one breakaway with Sundqvist and Nolan, but the pass didn’t complete so they didn’t get a shot in.

Slightly past the midway mark, Rittich tried playing the puck from behind the net, accidentally passed it right over to a Blues player, but Mikael Backlund came to his rescue to take the puck away.

This period was somewhat uneventful with neither team even managing a shot on goal for over ten minutes. But Gaudreau solidified the win with an empty-net goal with a little over three minutes to go.

Seconds after that goal, Nolan starting going after Rasmus Andersson close to the bench, so the Flames got the powerplay with a little under three to go.

On the powerplay, the Flames iced some players they wouldn’t normally with the four-goal lead. On the PP, Kerby Rychel, who was just recalled from the AHL this morning, made a good play by creating some traffic in front. Austin Czarnik got the puck over to Quine who scored his second of the game. That’s now three goals on four PP opportunities.

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That’s a wrap for this game! That’s now a three-game win streak and they’ve won eight of their last nine. They’re also 8-1-1 in their last ten. While the Flames didn’t play a great second or third period, they’re lucky they had such a good first period to give them that four-goal lead early on.

On to the next.

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