The Calgary Flames found another way to get two points out of this game against the Philadelphia Flyers. It wasn’t a great game, but they did it.
It was another (sort of) comeback for the Calgary Flames. They allowed the first goal, tied the game in the second period, before allowing the Philadelphia Flyers to get the lead in the third period again. Thanks to a late goal by Matthew Tkachuk and then him setting up TJ Brodie in overtime, and the Flames managed to get two points out of this one.
It wasn’t the best game for the Flames. It wasn’t terrible, but they’ve had much better games. They’ll definitely need to be sharper from here on out. Luckily, they found a way to win and now have sole possession of that second-place spot in the NHL.
While David Rittich had a bit of a mishap which was the reason the Flyers scored that second goal, he was incredible the rest of the game and helped the Flames stay in it. Let’s check out how the Flames got here tonight.
First period
It was quite an even, back-and-forth game for both teams to open up this hockey game. For the entire first half of the period, this was the game. At slightly past the midway mark, the Calgary Flames took a penalty so the Flyers got the first powerplay of the game.
On the PP, although the Flyers weren’t getting many chances, Travis Sanheim tried setting up the puck. As he passed it, it took a big deflection off of TJ Brodie’s skate and into the net. 1-0 Flyers.
A few minutes later, the Flames shot the puck straight out of the rink, so that’s another penalty they needed to kill off. On the PP, the Flyers had some great chances in the final minute and David Rittich had to make a couple of big saves to keep this a 1-0 game. The rest of the PP went scoreless.
With about two minutes left, it looked like Dale Weise was going on a breakaway, but he somewhat lost the puck as he was going and couldn’t get a good shot away. Moments later, Travis Hamonic put a good slapshot on Carter Hart, but it was stopped.
The Flames had a few good chances with about a minute left followed by a good chance by the Flyers, but this period finished 1-0. The Flyers outshot the Flames 13-11 this period but otherwise, it was quite an evenly played game at 5v5.
Second period
In the opening minute of the first period, the Calgary Flames took another penalty so they’ll be shorthanded for a third straight time. The Flyers weren’t able to even set up and barely had any clean entries which was a great PK for the Flames. Wells Fargo wasn’t happy with that. Lots of booing.
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After that successful PK, the Flames had some jump to their game. At one point, James Neal got the puck past the Flyers and Oliver Kylington was somewhat on a breakaway which was saved by Hart. This was followed by a good chance from Claude Giroux which was stopped by Rittich.
After a bit of a scrum, there was some 4on4 action. The Flames had three skaters going on the rush with Sean Monahan leading the way, he passed it over to Johnny Gaudreau who just one-timed it past Hart to tie the game. That was Gaudreau’s 350th NHL point in his 355th game.
About a minute later, the Flyers had a great opportunity to gain the lead back with a lot going on in front of Rittich, but somehow this one stayed out of the net.
Shortly after, the Flames took another penalty. They had a good shorthanded opportunity at first with Mark Jankowski (of course) getting the puck over to Elias Lindholm, but the puck just bounced over his stick. The Flyers then had some great chances on the Flames and Rittich had to make a few good saves.
In the dying seconds of the period, the Flyers took a penalty so the Flames started the third period on the powerplay, their first of the game.
Third period
The Calgary Flames didn’t start the powerplay off too well, they had trouble entering the zone at first and couldn’t get any shots on goal.
About six minutes into the period, Rittich left the net to play the puck. He accidentally gave it away and couldn’t get back in time and Travis Konecny made it 2-1. Shortly after, the Flames had their second powerplay of the period, but much like the first one, it took them a while to get it set up and they managed just one shot.
With about four minutes to go, the Flames went down for a chance and Sam Bennett got the puck over to Matthew Tkachuk, with Noah Hanifin doing a good job of creating a lane. Tkachuk just wristed it past Hart for the tie game.
With five seconds left in the game, Tkachuk had a sneaky shot between his legs which Hart found. Nothing was solved in 60 minutes, so this one needed extra time.
OT
The Calgary Flames started OT with possession and were trying to get something going. Gaudreau had a good dangle in the offensive-zone but OT was still scoreless. The Flyers then had their turn with possession but they couldn’t quite get a shot away.
As the Flyers were trying to get something going, Tkachuk somewhat took the puck away and went down with TJ Brodie on his wing for the 2on1 breakaway. From Tkachuk over to Brodie and that’s the game-winner! Quite nice for Brodie who saw the opening Flyers goal deflect off his skate.
This wasn’t the best game for the Flames, especially against a battered Flyers team, and they’ll definitely have to be sharper, but they found a way to get those two points. The Flames now sit in second place in the league with 56 points in 43 games.