Calgary Flames end Marc-Andre Fleury’s shutout streak, still lose 2-1

It was a hard-fought game (literally) between the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights, but the Knights won this one 2-1.

The Calgary Flames have now dropped their third straight game in regulation for the first time this season. The last time they lost even two in a row in regulation was in November. This season’s been alright, I guess.

This one was a battle and definitely felt like a playoff game but the Vegas Golden Knights walked away with the two points in their 2-1 win over the Flames. The Flames finally managed to end Marc-Andre Fleury‘s shutout streak which ran over 180 minutes long after he had back-to-back shutouts.

David Rittich stood on his head as well, stopping 36 of 38 shots he faced. This one got quite heated, especially in the second period when Fleury and Rittich were having a staring contest across the ice.

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

First period

The Golden Knights had the first powerplay of the game early on but the Calgary Flames did a good job of not letting them set up in the first 45 seconds, followed by some low-danger chances and no shots by Vegas.

A few minutes later, the Flames took another penalty. This PP was much better for the Golden Knights as they were able to set it up much quicker than their first. After an initial shot that was stopped, Shea Theodore got it past David Rittich for the 1-0 lead.

The Flames following that goal had a great scoring chance from their top-line, followed by some more scoring chance with one great shift by the fourth line, but this game was still 1-0.

With about five minutes left, Rittich made two great saves on Brandon Pirri which led to a Flames scoring chance. The top line made a few good moves which resulted in a tie-goal from Johnny Gaudreau. The Golden Knights challenged it for goaltender interference and it was called back.

This one was somewhat controversial and left Flames fans frustrated. Matthew Tkachuk was standing outside of the blue paint when Marc-Andre Fleury got his stick up which prevented him from being able to set up properly. But it wasn’t Tkachuk’s fault or his doing. So this one was back to being a 1-0 game which is how the period finished.

Despite taking two penalties that period, the Flames outshot the Knights 14-9 and won the possession game by a mile.

Second period

A little past five minutes into the period, the Calgary Flames finally got the first powerplay of the game. On the PP, they could barely set up in the offensive zone and had just one shot from Mark Giordano. The Knights had a good shorthanded chance as well but it was stopped.

The Flames had another PP later in the period and it seemed like they had nothing going on for a majority of it. Late on the PP as it was expiring, they kept the puck alive in the zone, and Travis Hamonic shot a rocket from the blue-line with a screen by Fleury’s own player for the tie game. They finally broke Fleury’s shutout streak!

In the final few minutes of the period, both teams took off-setting penalties so we saw some four-on-four. On that, both teams had some good chances before a big scrum broke out when Tkachuk ran into Fleury in his net. This caused somewhat of a brawl with the players on the ice and Fleury and Rittich almost got into it as well as they had a bit of a staring contest.

This period finished 1-1 with the Knights outshooting the Flames 14-9 with them having the advantage at 5v5 this time.

Third period

The Calgary Flames had another powerplay early in the period after killing off one that transferred over from the second period but it went scoreless. We saw a bit of back-and-forth action going between the teams with Vegas having the slight edge.

At one point, Rittich went behind the net to play the puck and somewhat gave it away, but the shaft of his stick stopped the puck from going in. About midway through the period, Deryk Engelland shot a wrister against his former team to give the Knights their lead back for his second goal of the season. All three goals in this game have been scored by defencemen. Engelland is absolutely not Forever A Flame.

The Flames pushed back, especially in the final two minutes when they took out the extra attacker, but they couldn’t get another one past Fleury, and this one ended 2-1 for the Knights. This was the third straight loss for the Flames and the first time they have done that this season.

They’ll be in action again tomorrow night as they face off against the Arizona Coyotes.