FLAMES EXTEND WINNING STREAK
Victory over Florida makes it six in a row
The Calgary Flames are officially red-hot.
Continuing a four-game road trip with a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers, they extended their win streak to six games and are now the hottest team in the NHL. They were previously tied with the Colorado Avalanche with a five-game winning spree.
On a mission to gain ground in the Pacific Division standings, they now sit only one point behind the Los Angeles Kings for second and have a 24-16-4 record — 12-5-4 on the road.
They’re also a whopping 49-02 when leading after the second period, a statistic which dates back to last season, and 5-2-0 in the second game of back-tobacks this season — which is impressive considering they whupped the best team in the NHL on Thursday, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1.
And the most mind-blowing stat of all?
Their power play has scored in two straight games. Plus, Johnny Gaudreau scored on a slap shot — finishing on a perfect, patient setup pass by Mikael Backlund with 3:45 remaining in the second period.
“A bomb,” joked Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “We’re obviously happy with the streak. Tonight our goalie was good and we got some timely saves. Our penalty kill leaked one but our power play got it back for us. I thought they gutted it out on a back-to-back.”
David Rittich, Calgary’s backup who was filling in for Mike Smith on the second half of the back-toback, was excellent.
The difference-maker was Sean Monahan’s 21st goal of the season, which came just 33 seconds after Evgenii Dadonov capital- ized on a Troy Brouwer gaffe on the penalty kill.
With the score tied 1-1 and only one minute elapsed in the middle frame, the Flames went to work. Matthew Tkachuk pulled Calgary ahead, tapping in a rebound off Travis Hamonic’s shot. Then came Gaudreau’s strike on the man advantage.
“We responded well after they scored an early power play goal in the second,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “I thought we played well. Until they got the 3-2 goal, they were obviously pushing toward the end. Our goaltender played great tonight — our goaltending has been the story for us all season. Another great performance by Ritter tonight.”
Dadonov made it close with 6:57 remaining in the third period. But despite the Panthers taking control for most of the last half of the game, they couldn’t beat Rittich again.
With 1:40 left, the 25-yearold native of Jihlava, Czech Republic, turned aside a Vincent Trocheck shot in close and denied Aaron Ekblad, who came in for the rebound. The Panthers, who deployed an extra attacker, continued to press when Jonathan Huberdeau drove to the net, landed on Rittich and his helmet in the process.
Rittich stopped 41 of 43 shots to improve to 4-1-1 on the season while Backlund potted an empty netter with 45.1 seconds left.
“I came into tonight and I want to win every game,” Rittich said. “I knew we had five in a row and I wanted to keep it up. I try show my best and give biggest chance for the guys and we did it.”
Gulutzan indicated the Flames could expect a heavy game and he was right — the rough stuff was magnified between Jamie McGinn and T.J. Brodie in the second period. Meanwhile, Nick Bjugstad and Hamonic were taking turns face-washing each other.
It continued in the third with McGinn mixing it up with Garnet Hathaway with 8:25 remaining.
A scoreless first period was made possible due to a handful of Rittich saves. On the other side, Calgary had their momentum stalled in the first period from a (temporarily) quiet Flames power play.
The Flames travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face the Carolina Hurricanes for a matinee on Sunday.
We’re obviously happy with the streak. Tonight our goalie was good and we got some timely saves.