Second lasts a lifetime with four goals in period
It was too late to count as a new year’s resolution, but if the Calgary Flames continue to carry Thursday’s morning message into the first few months of 2018, it could indeed be a happy new year.
In their first outing since the fireworks went off and calendars flipped, the Flames rebounded from a two-goal deficit with one of their finest periods of the season, with four unanswered tallies in the middle stanza en route to a 4-3 victory Thursday over the Los Angeles Kings at the Saddledome.
“We just had a meeting this morning, to be honest, about squeezing a little bit when we get down,” Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We generate as a top-five team in this league in chances, and yet we squeeze if we’re down 1-0, especially at home. We addressed that today, and that we need to stay the course.
“I guess my actual message was somebody has gotta score first. So we shouldn’t squeeze, especially at home, especially if we generate like a top team in this league, and we do. So why are we getting a little tight when we’re down one? We should embrace that as a bit of a challenge.”
The Flames, it seems, accepted the challenge. They maybe even one-upped their boss, spotting the visitors a two-goal edge before an eye-opening turnaround.
Micheal Ferland, Troy Brouwer, Mark Jankowski and Sean Monahan each scored in the middle frame, while the Saddledome hosts buckled down defensively in the third to secure a well-deserved victory against a division rival, and in regulation to boot.
“The first period, we weren’t at our best,” said Flames star Johnny Gaudreau, who collected a pair of assists against the Kings. “We just came out really hard in the second. We knew we needed to be better, especially against this team, one of the top teams in the league, so we came out hard, found a couple of goals, and then I think we played pretty well in the third, as well.”
Ferland got the ball rolling early in the second, slipping behind the defence on an offensive rush, accepting a feed from Gaudreau and shrugging off a hook from a pesky backchecker as he tried a low shot. Kings stalwart Jonathan Quick made the save, but as he slid backward, the puck followed him across the goal-line.
About five minutes later, Brouwer parked at the doorstep to provide a screen on a blast from the point, then spun to bang home the rebound from close range.
Jankowski capitalized on an ugly gaffe by Kings defenceman Kurtis MacDermid for the go-ahead goal. MacDermid couldn’t control a pass in the corner and the puck squirted into the slot, where Jankowski unloaded a quick shot and followed up with a cross-check of sorts on the rebound, knocking the puck out of mid-air with the shaft of his stick.
With 45 seconds before another intermission, Gaudreau feathered a backhand pass to Monahan in the slot. Calgary’s leading marksman doesn’t often miss from there, and he didn’t.
Kings winger Tanner Pearson scored his second of the night with 91 ticks left in the third, shortly after Monahan cranked the crossbar, to make things interesting, but that’s as close as it would get.
“You take more confidence, than anything, out of it,” Brouwer said. “If you’re confident, then you go out there and you’re making plays, you’re reading the play well, you’re reading the game well, knowing when it’s time to try something or whether it’s time to dump it in and try to work that way. With that, you get more confident, and with confidence comes better play and you (don’t) second-guess yourself or hesitate on the ice.
“You know, confidence kills.”