Road swing cooling off Flames
Punchless power play dooms Calgary as they suffer second straight defeat
The Calgary Flames are entrenched in a battle to the end of the 2016-17 National Hockey League season, currently amid a three-game road trip, which continued with Thursday’s clash against the Nashville Predators.
But after a 3-1 decision to the hosts of Music City — their second in a row after losing 4-2 to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday — they might as well have gone across the street to sing their sad story at Legends Corner.
Thursday’s setback was the first time the Flames have lost two straight since Jan. 23-24 in Toronto and Montreal. Since their 10-game winning streak, they’re 2-3-0.
Glen Gulutzan, in his post-game address, was as cool and calm as The Man in Black himself.
“There’s no cause for worry,” the Flames head coach said. “I mean, it wasn’t like (Thursday’s) game we were dominated and weren’t ready to play. We were ready to play. They’re a good hockey club.
“We just have to keep doing our thing and moving forward.”
The Flames (41-29-4) remain stuck in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference with the Predators (37-25-11) in the second wild-card spot, moving within one point of the Calgarians.
And truth be told, they still have time to pick up their guitar cases, find a new tune and move on with eight more regular season games remaining.
“I don’t think we slipped,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “We played a good game. We made a few mistakes that they capitalized on but we had three or four posts and a lot of quality chances. Their goalie made some huge saves. “We just have to keep with it.” The Predators hit the scoresheet at the 5:02 mark of the second period, shortly after Calgary centre Freddie Hamilton’s roughing penalty expired.
Hamilton was literally stepping out of the box when Michael Frolik lost coverage and Calle Jarnkrok rifled a wrist shot before Chad Johnson could get over to the other side of the net.
Shortly after, Nashville connected again when defensive coverage broke down between TJ Brodie and Michael Stone and Colton Sissons deposited the Predators second goal of the night.
The Flames came within one — a great battle by Micheal Ferland to keep the puck in play followed by a passing play between Johnny Gaudreau and Ferland. Ferland set up Dougie Hamilton — who’d hit two posts before that — and he made no mistake.
“We just have to keep going,” Giordano said. “Yeah, you don’t want to lose more than one in a row at this time of the year. But we have to stick with our game plan and get the next one.”
But a big reason they dropped this one was their power play, which was 0 for 5. In fact, the Flames’ man advantage unit hasn’t scored in five games (0-for-12).
“We need to shoot the puck more,” Gulutzan said. “I thought they did a good job of shutting us down. But we didn’t execute, either. We had them in precarious positions and we didn’t execute, we iced it on ourselves. We weren’t good enough on the power play (Thursday) and that’s what cost us in an even hockey game.”
Ryan Ellis scored the Predators third goal at the eight-minute mark of the third period.
Despite the solid play of Flames netminder Brian Elliott as of late, the Flames put their trust in Johnson, who was playing his first game since a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 17, which snapped their 10-game win streak.
In the losing effort, Johnson stopped 14 of 17 shots while the Flames threw 25 attempts at Rinne.
“You can’t get down,” Giordano said. “Not at this time of the year. It’s not the time to let two turn into three and then more. We’ll get one back next game and move on from there.”
The Flames head to St. Louis to play the Blues on Saturday.