For the first time all season, the Calgary Flames won a game after trailing going into the third period.
The Flames are a desperate team, sitting just outside the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. This isn’t where they were supposed to be. Heading into the season, many pundits predicted the Flames would either win the Pacific Division or finish second behind the Edmonton Oilers. They weren’t supposed to be battling for their playoff lives at the end of March.
A big reason why they’re in that position is that they literally couldn’t comeback in the third period to save their lives. Heading into Friday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, the Flames were 0-18-3 when trailing going into the third period. They were the only team in the league without a single win in that situation.
The Canucks, by the way, are tied for the league lead in wins when trailing heading into the third period. The Canucks have won eight games in that situation, same as the New York Islanders.
They’ve also lost the fourth-most games when trailing heading into the third period. It turns out that the Canucks have trailed going into the third period a lot of times this season.
On Friday night, the Canucks took a 4-3 lead into the third period and the Flames pulled off the improbable: they came back to win. It took overtime but they did it.
Did it help that the Flames had two power plays in the final five minutes, including one that was questionable, at best? It sure did. It also helped that the Canucks shut down like a robot presented with a logical contradiction, managing just two shots on goal in the third period.
The final shot total was 41-to-20, boosted by the Flames pouring on the pressure in the third period. But here’s the thing: most of those shots were from the outside, with the Flames frequently giving up a promising possession with terrible shot selection. At 5-on-5, high-danger chances were 10-to-7 for the Flames according to Natural Stat Trick — it was a lot closer than the shot totals would indicate, especially when you consider score effects with the Flames pushing hard to come from behind.
Ultimately, there was something in this game for everyone. The Flames got a crucial win that kept them just two points back of the playoffs. The Canucks were prevented from passing the Detroit Red Wings in the standings to make their draft position worse. The fans got to see nine goals, including one from hometown favourite Troy Stecher and a first-career goal for Aidan McDonough.
Add in the Pride Night festivities and it was a lovely night at Rogers Arena. A good time was had by all when I watched this game.
- The Canucks put on a first-class Pride Night with only the damp weather putting a damper on the Pride Party in the Plaza to kick off the night. It was still a lively, fun affair for those who braved the rain and the in-arena experience was pitch perfect. Kudos to the Canucks.
- Conor Garland got the Canucks on the board first with the most unreal individual effort since John Galt. Mikael Backlund, covering for Troy Stecher at the point, was divested of the puck by Garland, who raced away for a clearcut breakaway, then snapped the puck past Jacob Markstrom’s glove.
- Elias Pettersson made it 2-0 on the power play with a one-timer blast from the top of the right faceoff circle — exactly where he used to score so many power play goals before this season. It was like the return of Coca-Cola Classic after New Coke: wonderfully refreshing.
- That’s where things started going off the rails, partly because of Tyler Myers placing a series of pennies on said rails. Myers turned over the puck to Tyler Toffoli at the Flames’ blue line, then got his wires crossed with defence partner Guillaume Brisebois: Myers switched checks as Toffoli and Andrew Mangiapane crossed over, while Brisebois stayed with his man — his Man-giapane. That left Toffoli wide open to finish on the backhand.
- Demko made a brilliant save on Backlund just over a minute later, robbing him of a shorthanded goal. While the Canucks’ power play mostly stood around and watched, Demko scrambled back after overplaying the puck-carrier to get his glove on Backlund’s shot while in the full splits. With a glove and splits like that, Demko belonged on the Everybody Say Glove runway on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
- Troy from Richmond helped tie the game up for the Flames. Stecher’s point shot got through traffic, then Myers lost his check, Blake Coleman, on the rebound. He wasn’t lost for long: Backlund found him with a lovely hook pass, leaving Demko dead in the water like the zombies in World War Z.
- The highlight of the game was Aidan McDonough scoring his first career NHL goal. It involved some good, old-fashioned grinding by McDonough and his linemates, Jack Studnicka and Sheldon Dries. McDonough stole the puck off Milan Lucic and cycled it behind the net to Studnicka. He peeled out from behind the net and threw a shot on goal that was stopped, but then Dries made a brilliant pass from his knees, backhanding it to McDonough at the back post for the finish.
- “You dream about scoring that in the driveway or in the backyard your whole life,” said McDonough. “I’ve always been taught by my coach in college to always be down and ready — bend your knees, stick on the ice, be ready for that puck when it comes. I thought last game, I wasn’t really down and ready when those pucks popped out in the slot…This time, I knew that when I’m around the net, I’m going to make sure my stick’s on the ice, me knees are bent, and I’m ready to jam it.”
- Making the goal even sweeter is that his childhood friend, Jack Rathbone, was on the ice with him and was even the first player to celebrate the goal with him. That’s a special moment.
- “I think his smile and excitement was even more than mine,” said McDonough, who obviously couldn’t see just how big his own smile was. “I think he was more happy than I was. It’s just, I was a little shocked and he was fired up.”
- “I can remember playing street hockey, his dad would play goalie all the time in his driveway,” McDonough added. “Mr. Rathbone was really good. The only thing was he was my coach, so I didn’t want to shoot too high. Markstrom’s obviously a good goalie, but Mr. Bones is a good athlete.”
- For the record, Jason Rathbone, Jack’s father, was definitely a good athlete, even if he was a right winger on the ice rather than the goaltender he was in street hockey. He was drafted by the New York Islanders and played four years at Boston College and one in the ECHL.
- Another Myers misplay gave Jonathan Huberdeau a breakaway, then he hooked Huberdeau to give him a penalty shot. Fortunately, Demko was able to take away enough of the net to force Huberdeau to hit the post. As RuPaul would definitely say, “Oh no he Huber-don’t.”
- The Flames still got the tying goal a few minutes later on a counter-attack in transition. Unfortunately, it was McDonough who left his man, Troy Stecher, wide open to cover the trailer, Nick Ritchie. Myers left a gap bigger than himself on Nazem Kadri and didn’t take away his passing lane either, so it was easy for Kadri to give Stecher an open look on Demko. Stecher went top corner where the American flag keeps the stars.
- To be fair to both McDonough and Myers on that goal, Brisebois also played it poorly. Brisebois played it like it was man-to-man coverage and focused on tying up Dillon Dube, but it was a 4-on-3 rush and Brisebois needed to play more of a zone defence, taking away the left side of the ice. That way, he could have covered for McDonough when he peeled off Stecher to take the trailer.
- Seconds later, the Canucks were back on top. Myers rimmed the puck around the boards and it bounced out into the neutral zone, giving Anthony Beauvillier and Nils Åman a 2-on-1. They played the give-and-go perfectly, with Beauvillier driving straight to the back post after passing the puck and Åman delaying the return pass just long enough to convince Markstrom that he might shoot. Instead, he returned the puck to Beauvillier to smack into the net to make it 4-3.
- At one point, Stecher put an incredible spin move on Dries, which honestly just makes sense. The spin cycle and Dries naturally go together.
- A bogus high-sticking call on Pettersson led to the tying goal for the Flames. It was a bad call not for the reason many think, which is that Walker Duehr lifted Pettersson’s stick into his own face. He did, but there’s nothing in the rulebook about that and it says that players are responsible for their own sticks. Instead, the issue was that a linesman called it instead of one of the two referees and linesmen are only allowed to call missed double minor or major penalties. Linesmen not allowed to call minor penalties. But he did anyway.
- “I don’t want to comment because then I’ll probably get fined,” said Pettersson. “They did their best. They made a call that I didn’t agree with… They’re stubborn and they said it was right, so you’ve just got to accept it.”
- The Flames got a bounce to go with the call. Noah Hanifin’s one-timer went well wide but caromed off the boards behind the net to Huberdeau, who was able to fire the puck off the sprawling Demko and in to tie the game 4-4.
- Partway through overtime, Tocchet sent an unexpected combination out for an offensive zone faceoff: Phil Di Giuseppe and Dakota Joshua at forward, with Quinn Hughes on defence. Like the McWhopper, the odd combo nearly worked: Di Giuseppe, normally a winger, got the faceoff win and set up Joshua for a great chance on the doorstep, but Markstrom robbed him. The Flames immediately went the other way and Toffoli scored the gamewinner on a 2-on-1.
- “Guys were tired,” said Tocchet when asked about using Di Giuseppe and Joshua in overtime. “And they almost scored a goal…if they had scored, I would’ve been a hero, right?”
