Calgary Flames: Mark Giordano records three points in 800th game

The Calgary Flames won their fifth straight win against the Arizona Coyotes in what was a successful 800th game for Mark Giordano.

It was a fifth straight win for the Calgary Flames as they continue to lead the Western Conference and sit in second place in the league. They beat the Arizona Coyotes by a score of 7-1. For captain Mark Giordano, it was a successful one as he played in his 800th NHL game. He’ll always be an All-Star in my eyes.

He had two goals and one assist to earn the first star of the game. Johnny Gaudreau also extended his point streak to six games, recording 18 points in those eight games as he also rose to second in NHL scoring. He also now leads the NHL in even strength points.

Andrew Mangiapane assisted on the first goal of the game for his first NHL point.

The Flames now have matched a franchise record for fewest games to record 30 wins in a season with 47 games. The last time they reached that? 1988-89. Hmm, I wonder what else happened that year…

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

First period

In the first half of this period, it was quite uneventful. For lack of better words, it was boring. Two things happened: Mark Giordano tried feeding Elias Lindholm on a breakaway but the puck was too quick and Andrew Mangiapane shot it wide. At this point, the Calgary Flames were outshooting the Coyotes 3-0. So you can probably assume how this was going.

About 9:30 into the period, the Flames took the first penalty of the game. The Coyotes had some decent chances on that PP but didn’t manage a shot until almost a minute and a half into it. Mike Smith came up big on that PP and robbed Derek Stepan, followed by the Coyotes hitting the post, so this one went scoreless.

Moments later, the Coyotes had another good chance but the puck bounced on top of the net and somehow stayed out even with Smith not knowing at all where that puck was. The Flames answered back by having a good chance with Gio with a great shot, but it was tipped wide.

With under five to go, James Neal had a good pass over to Oliver Kylington who shot it but it was stopped.

With about three minutes to go, Andrew Mangiapane tried making a good play but lost the puck, he ended up getting it back, getting it over to Derek Ryan who quickly passed it back to Giordano and he just ripped it past Adin Hill for the first goal of the game. That was also Mangiapane’s first NHL point!

After that goal, Bill Peters decided to ice the top line and it paid off. Johnny Gaudreau wanted to shoot the puck but decided to pass, he ended up getting it back from behind the net, found Sean Monahan for a great pass for the 2-0 lead.

This period finished 2-0 for the Flames as they outshot the Coyotes 11-5 as they also had the edge at 5v5.

Second period

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Less than two minutes into the period, there was some miscommunication among the Coyotes defencemen in their own zone for who will grab the puck, so Matthew Tkachuk easily stole it to give the Calgary Flames the 3-0 lead. A little unfortunate for the Coyotes as they basically could have had a three-on-one going the other way.

About four minutes into the period, the Flames got their first powerplay of the game. Gaudreau had a good shot early on but it was stopped. The Flames then tried setting up again but couldn’t quite get any scoring chances, so this PP went scoreless against the best penalty-killing team in the league.

After that successful PK for the Yotes, it seemed like they had some extra jump and continued to push back this period. Later in the period, the Flames took a penalty but the Coyotes didn’t have a whole lot of chances on that PP, so this went scoreless.

Shortly after the PP ended, with a little under three to go, the Flames went back to work. Michael Frolik shot the puck to which the rebound went to Monahan who saw Gaudreau was open at the side, passed it over to him, and Gaudreau basically had an open net for the 4-0 lead.

Seconds after that goal, the Coyotes went on the powerplay. In the dying seconds of the powerplay, Jordan Oesterle wired it from the point with Christian Fischer acting as a screen to put them on the board with just 16 seconds left in the period.

Death, taxes, and the Flames allowing late-period goals.

This period finished 4-1 for the Flames and overall, it wasn’t a great period for them even though they scored two goals. They let the Coyotes completely outplay them at 5v5 and were outshot 12-7.

Third period

The third period started with the Coyotes continuing with a bit of pressure, but the Calgary Flames fought back quickly. Tkachuk made it 5-1 less than five minutes into the period by tipping in a shot from Mikael Backlund. Less than two minutes later, Giordano recorded his second goal of the game with a rocket from the point.

There weren’t any penalties in the third period so we didn’t have a chance to see Mark Jankowski potentially score a few shorthanded goals.

A minute after that Gio slapshot, Sam Bennett tipped a shot in from Neal. It first looked like Neal may have gotten the goal and I was celebrating, but it turned out to be Bennett, which is a good second best. I’m just a little surprised that they didn’t want to review that goal.

Jokes.

The rest of the period, the Flames definitely had the edge. You would have thought that it was them who were down a few goals. It was nice to see seeing how they haven’t been playing that well lately against mediocre teams, yet they were still winning, so they weren’t exactly learning anything.

This game finished 7-1 for the Flames and Mike Smith also had a great game, stopping 22 of 23 shots against his former team. All lines got a goal tonight and seven skaters had multi-point games. This game truly felt like a full team effort from everyone.

The Calgary Flames will play the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday to hopefully continue to close the gap between them and the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the league.