Flames edged 4-3 By New York Rangers
Gulutzan puts the blame on slow start, bad penalties and ineffective power play
NEW YORK 4, CALGARY 3
NEW YORK The laundry list of “what went wrong” was lengthy.
In a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Calgary Flames had a subpar start, they took too many penalties (five), were one-for-six on the power play, and squandered a 3-2 lead in the third period.
The Rangers — who had been blown out 6-1 by the Boston Bruins on home ice Tuesday, prompting a letter to season-ticket holders and fans from general manager Glen Sather on Wednesday and their No. 1 goalie to be called out by their coach on Thursday — looked like a team that was playing for their jobs.
The Flames, who dropped to 2819-8 with Friday’s frustrating loss? Not so much.
“Just the way we played and the way we approached the game,” infuriated head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought we were terrible in the first. We took way too many penalties. Took a dumb penalty in the third with eight minutes left and they capitalized. We took five. If you’re short-handed five times on a back-to-back, you’re probably not coming out of there in a good place.
“We got what we deserved. We weren’t ready to play.”
The “dumb” penalty in the third was Sam Bennett’s holding infraction on David Desharnais which led to Mika Zibanejad’s tap-in off an incredible J.T. Miller feed, which stood as the game winner with 7:19 remaining in the final frame. (Gulutzan pointed out that Calgary’s third line of Bennett, Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway was invisible).
The Flames also couldn’t capitalize on a six-on-four with 1:32 left with goalie Mike Smith on the bench and Rangers forward Kevin Hayes in the penalty box for tripping Johnny Gaudreau.
The Flames power play went one-for-six, their lone goal coming with 1:33 left in the second when Matthew Tkachuk got a piece of Dougie Hamilton’s point shot to put Calgary ahead 3-2.
The lead didn’t last. “Probably from the start of the game, we didn’t deserve to win,” Tkachuk said. “It’s as simple as that. There’s games you can go through — I think we won three in a row coming into tonight — and for us to be up 3-2 after two was kind of a miracle.
“It caught up with us in the third. We got what we deserved tonight.”
Another big stick-tap can go to Smith, who stood on his head, facing 36 Rangers shots including 20 in the first period.
The Flames outshot the Rangers 21-8 in the second period but it hardly made up for the third period, when the Blueshirts really took it to them.
Rick Nash, who may not be a Ranger by the time the month is over, knotted the score 3-3 with 13:19 remaining which, you’d think, would be plenty of time for Calgary to respond.
No dice.
“We had our chances but you can only say we had our chances for so long,” Tkachuk said. “We’ve got to start burying them and bearing down.
“We’ve got to get our PP going to start winning some games.”
Also scoring for Calgary was Brett Kulak, his first career NHL goal knotting the score 1-1 in the first period, and Curtis Lazar, who poked a puck past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to tie the game 2-2 in the second.
Hayes opened the scoring on the man advantage at the 7:53 mark with Hamilton in the penalty box while Grabner pulled the Rangers ahead 2-1 in the second.
“You’re not going to win giving up two power play goals in an opposition’s building in a back-toback,” Gulutzan said. “The chances weren’t that high. They had two breakaways at the end of a power play. We had no game awareness that guys were coming out of the box. We had it pretty close in chances after two periods, but their looks were better.” Next up?
The Flames have a day off Saturday and continue their six-game road trip against the New York Islanders on Sunday (5 p.m. MT, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 960 The Fan), their fourth stop.
BROUWER INJURED
On his first shift of Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Devils, Flames winger Troy Brouwer was on the ice for 12 seconds before he was struck in the face by a puck.
After a quick trip down the tunnel at Prudential Center and before the first period’s end, Brouwer was back on the ice and completed the game, logging 11:55 of ice time.
So, when Brad Treliving revealed Friday at the team’s media availability that Brouwer had broken his cheekbone and would be weekto-week as he heals fromthe injury, the news was somewhat surprising considering the winger played out the remainder of the game.
“Tough for us but if we’re going to throw the ‘tough’ word around, he played two periods that way,” said Flames coach Glen Gulutzan.
“So, he’s going to be out for a while with a fractured face. But it happened on the first shift, he played two periods and was still blocking shots and that kind of thing. That’s going to be a big loss, especially because he was taking top minutes on our penalty kill. Even though it’s gotten scored on, we’ve looked real good at times with that thing. So, that’s a loss for us.”
Brouwer should resume skating on Monday, according to the team. The 32-year-old Vancouver native has played 54 games and scored three goals and 12 assists.
Hath away was moved to the right wing on the third line with Bennett and Jankowski for Friday’s game against the Rangers while Lazar was on the fourth line with Matt Stajan and Ryan Lomberg.