Forgive the Scotiabank Saddledome regulars for selling their tickets on this night.
It was hard to argue, considering it was snowing and cold and, well, it was only the Arizona Coyotes — a tough draw on the best of nights. Maybe you heard the Calgary Flames had out-scored them last season by a whopping 18-6?
Still tired from the time change? A reasonable excuse, too.
And for the first 56 minutes and 30 seconds of Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime win, the Flames used those excuses too.
But back-to-back third period goals in the final 4:30 erased a two-goal deficit to force the extra frame while Matthew Tkachuk netted the game-winner on a monster shift with 33.9 seconds remaining.
“I just stayed out because I didn’t want them to give them an opportunity to push one or two guys while I was changing,” said Tkachuk, who logged back-to-back shifts of 41 seconds and 1:11 in the final portion of overtime. “I thought I was tired, but the guys that were out there were out for a shift before me and were way more tired…
“We really had no business other than Ritter (Flames netminder David Rittich) to win that game.”
Tkachuk had also kick-started the comeback on a late powerplay with Barrett Hayton off for tripping while Mark Giordano capitalized with a shot off Jason Demers’ stick 49 seconds later to tie it 3-3.
Raise your hand if you thought Tuesday’s game would end this way.
Definitely not Flames head coach Bill Peters. Peters was livid after the details of Tuesday’s game were swept under the rug, including (but not limited to) discipline issues and poor defensive play that prompted him to put his pairings in a blender.
“I thought we gave them a couple goals . . . we weren’t very good,” Peters said. “We couldn’t pass the puck. Everything’s in the feet. Everything is behind guys. When you look slow, it’s puck speed and execution with the puck.
“There’s guys open, we don’t see them. There’s guys open, we put it behind them. It’s the National Hockey League, we’ve gotta be able to make a pass.
Vinnie Hinostroza had capitalized on a turnover by Noah Hanifin, who got the puck caught up in his skates, and went in all alone on Rittich at the 10:31 mark of the third to put — what looked like — the finishing touches on a game that was very much in the Flames’ reach all night. It was 3-1 at that point.
Rittich, once again, was outstanding, facing 37 shots and making some incredible stops that included some late-game heroics on Hinostroza, a glove save on Derek Stepan early in the third period and a slick right pad save on Jakob Chychrun just as the whistle sounded in the second.
These aren’t last year’s Coyotes, though. They had beaten the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime on Monday and swaggered into Calgary with a 9-4-1 record. Meanwhile, Antti Raanta, who missed nearly the entirety of the 2018-19 campaign with a knee injury, was superb in overtime and faced 43 Flames attempts in total.
HOME SWEET HOME
This is the start of a home stretch for the Flames that sees them play four games in 11 nights, including three games this week (Arizona on Tuesday, New Jersey on Thursday and St. Louis on Saturday), only one mid-week game next week (Dallas on Wednesday) and a total of six scheduled practice days.
It’s a welcome change from the get-up-and-go they have faced since they departed on Oct. 25 for the Tim Hortons Heritage Classic and didn’t return home until the wee hours of Monday morning.
They have a chance to gain some ground, after going 2-1-2 in their longest road swing of the 2019-20 season and currently sit 9-7-2 overall.
“I think there’s lots to talk about — tonight and tomorrow,” Peters said. “Lots to talk about. We need more. We need more out of some veteran guys.
“I just know that over time, this stuff evens out . . . it doesn’t always have to be a Picasso . . . but let’s not be hanging our hat on this — it’s not a recipe for success long-term.”
JOHNNY’S BACK
No one needed to remind Johnny Gaudreau how long it’s been.
But for those that were curious, it had been twelve games, 23 days, and 30 shots on net since No. 13 has found the back of the net. For a goal-scorer and point-producer, it might as well be an eternity.
With 2:44 remaining in the second period on a Flames’ powerplay, Gaudreau started the entry into Arizona’s zone and passed to Sean Monahan, who sent the puck over to Tkachuk, who then found Gaudreau back-door. A chip-shot past Raanta was all it took to end the 26-year-old’s frustrating goal-less stretch.
Twelve games was the second-longest scoring drought of Gaudreau’s career, just two games away from the longest of his NHL tenure — a 14-gamer from Jan. 29 to March 3, 2015, his first campaign in The Show.
On top of the much-needed marker for the shifty left-winger, it came on the man advantage, which hadn’t scored since Elias Lindholm’s snowy goal in the Flames’ eventual 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Mosaic Stadium.
At that point in the game, Clayton Keller and Christian Dvorak had given the Coyotes a 2-0 lead.
PP STRIKES BACK
Speaking of the man advantage, the Flames had been riding a deplorable 0-for-10 stretch prior to Tuesday’s game.
And on their two early powerplays with Ilya Lyubushkin tagged for interference and Chychrun off for tripping, they allowed two separate short-handed two-on-0 rushes from the Coyotes.
But on their fourth man advantage of the night — a Carl Soderberg hooking infraction on Tkachuk — they finally got something going. And they finished the evening two-for-six.
As for their penalty kill, it was a perfect 0-for-5.
Heading into the evening, the Flames were the most penalized team in the NHL having taken 74 penalties in 17 games, including 69 minors which had them leading the league in both categories. Their penalty kill was 86.9 per cent, fourth-best in the NHL. But when you take so many penalties, you get piles of practice.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
