Perhaps, the Calgary Flames were trying to fool themselves by wearing their whites.
It worked.
The Flames finally snapped out of their home-ice funk in a Family Day matinee, riding a five-goal third-period outburst to a 6-4 comeback victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
“This has to be a tough building to play in,” declared Flames speedster Andrew Mangiapane after his first career hat-trick. “And that’s what it was today.”
For the past month, it’s only been tough on the locals.
Prior to Monday’s slump-buster, the Flames had dropped five straight at the Saddledome. (It’s their stellar road record that has them right in the thick of the Pacific Division playoff race.)
When Ducks grinder Nicolas Deslauriers scored a fluke early in the third, with his shot from the half-wall glancing off Michael Stone’s skate, they seemed to be on their way to making it a six-pack of sours in front of their own fans.
As Flames bench boss Geoff Ward admitted afterward: “The potential for us get bothered by that was probably pretty good, falling behind by two goals at home and not being able to win at home for awhile.”
In this case, they weren’t bothered.
Suddenly, they were buzzing.
Mangiapane and Sam Bennett tallied only 19 seconds apart to equalize, then fan favourite Matthew Tkachuk made a terrific play to bat down his own rebound and bury the go-ahead goal.
The hosts — wearing their retro whites instead of their usual red togs — never looked back from there, earning their first home W since way back on Jan. 11.
“After they scored that quick one in the third, a crappy bounce off us, we could have folded our hand and been like, ‘Oh, another rough bounce at home,’ ” said Flames netminder Cam Talbot. “But we stuck with it, came out with five straight goals after that. And I think that was huge for our psyche moving forward, knowing that we can come back and play in those tight games and then kind of put it away when we need to.”
So what changed?
“I think it brought out our road game,” Talbot replied. “We just needed to get greasy there. We were getting pucks deep. We were getting pucks to the net. We held onto pucks in the offensive zone and made plays. That is our recipe for success, and when we’re doing it, you can see how successful we can be.”
Monday marked one week to the NHL’s annual trade deadline, and Mangiapane is doing his darnedest to convince general manager Brad Treliving that he doesn’t need to go shopping for a top-six upgrade. (The addition of a proven marksman would likely bump the 23-year-old winger, currently skating with Mikael Backlund and Tkachuk, to a third- or fourth-line role.)
The out-of-towners struck first in the holiday hook-up, but Mangiapane replied less than a minute later by burying Noah Hanifin’s rebound.
Shortly after Deslauriers gave the Ducks a 3-1 edge early in the third, he trimmed the deficit with a smooth move to his backhand and a top-shelf sizzler.
Proof that he was determined to complete the hat-trick, Mangiapane bowled over Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf to force a turnover — there was no shortage of those from either side — at the blue-line and eventually fired into the empty net at the opposite end.
Sean Monahan also tickled twine for the Flames on Family Day, with his goal standing as the game-winner after a late lamp-lighting by the visitors.
With David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand & Co. coming to town, maybe the locals should wear their whites?
“We needed a win at home badly,” Bennett said after Monday’s matinee. “We just stuck with it, we kept battling. That’s a huge win for us on home ice and now we’re going to get some mojo and start rolling again.”
ICE CHIPS
The Flames now have seven victories this season when trailing after 40 minutes. They achieved that feat eight times during the 2018-19 campaign. “To come from behind to get the win, that probably does more for us than if we were playing with the lead all night,” Ward assessed … Mangiapane’s final stat-line is a doozy. He netted the hat-trick, added a helper and posted a plus-4 rating in a career-high 18:45 of ice time … The only bad news? Elias Lindholm’s 10-game point-spree came to end … The Flames summoned AHL all-star Glenn Gawdin from the Stockton Heat, although his big-league debut will have to wait. The 22-year-old Gawdin was recalled as an insurance policy with Backlund battling the flu, but No. 11 was able to gut it out … Flames pivot Derek Ryan missed a second straight contest due to illness and was placed on injured reserve. He is eligible to be activated for Friday’s clash with the Bruins. Mark Giordano (hamstring) and Travis Hamonic (upper body) also remain on Calgary’s injured list … There was a familiar face in the press-box for Monday’s meeting — Darryl Sutter, who skipped the Flames to the Stanley Cup final in 2004 and later guided the Los Angeles Kings to a pair of parades, is now a coaching advisor for the Ducks.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
