SHARK ATTACK AT THE DOME
Three quick goals sink the Flames
Cut out 85 seconds and the Calgary Flames would probably be happy with their performance on Thursday night.
Unfortunately, that’s not how this works. You can’t just cut out 85 seconds from a game. Instead, the Flames came out on the losing end of a 5-2 score against their division rival San Jose Sharks.
Up against a Sharks (32-16-7) squad that’s biting at their heels in the Pacific Division standings, the Flames (34-15-5) were undone by a brutal first-period stretch that saw starting goalie David Rittich pulled after surrendering two goals in quick succession. Backup Mike Smith then allowed the first shot he faced to find the back of the net.
There was 58 minutes and 35 seconds more hockey to be played, of course, and the Flames had plenty of opportunities to get back in the game, but a largely solid performance wasn’t enough to overcome that 85-second calamity.
“I didn’t mind our start through the first 10, 11 or 12 minutes there,” said Flames head coach Bill Peters. “And then we had a tough stretch where there was a four-on-four (goal) and then a short-handed goal, and then another one right away before the TV timeout. And from that point, on we chased the game.”
The loss saw the Flames’ lead over the Sharks at the top of the Pacific Division shrink to only two points. A week ago, it was six, but the Sharks have won four in a row while the Flames have lost two of three.
With a four-game road trip kicking off Saturday night in Vancouver, and defenceman Travis Hamonic leaving the game with what appeared to be a hand injury, Thursday wasn’t a good night for the Flames by any stretch of the imagination, and there’s no use pretending otherwise.
Their performance, though, was not as bad as the final score line suggested.
Things started well. Throughout a tense couple of minutes, the Flames largely kept the Sharks to the outside in the offensive zone, and were able to draw first blood on the scoreboard after some effective forechecking led to captain Mark Giordano flinging the puck at the Sharks net. Mark Jankowski deflected it past Martin Jones at 4:36 of the opening stanza.
Peters had made it a point of emphasis to get out to a fast start when he spoke with the media earlier on Thursday, and he couldn’t have asked for much better from his troops.
At that point, there was no indication of the 85-second calamity that was to come before the period was through.
It started at the 12:39 mark when Evander Kane found himself bearing down on the Flames net in a foot race with Rasmus Andersson. Kane stopped, spun, and fired a low shot at Rittich that somehow managed to find its way into the back of the Flames’ net.
A minute or so later it got worse when a seemingly harmless puck was flung down ice by the Sharks. Rittich sped out of his crease to clear the puck, but instead fired it right to a charging Brent Burns, who gratefully took possession and calmly placed the puck in the empty Flames net to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
“He faked me going to the boards and then jumped right to the middle,” Rittich said. “It was a smart play by him. I probably should have just held it for a second and then try to play it.”
It was at that point that Peters made the call to end the shaky Rittich’s night, but that didn’t stop the bleeding.
Just 22 seconds after Burns had buried the Sharks’ second goal, Tomas Hertl found himself right where he needed to be at the side of the Flames’ crease, and knocked the puck in past Smith — who was solid for most of the night — at the 14:04 mark.
Eighty-five seconds, three goals. It was a lethal stretch from which the Flames would never recover.
And yet, it could be easily argued that the Flames were the better team for the vast majority of the rest of the night.
They outshot the Sharks 38-30 and had at least half a dozen chances in the second and third periods, when it seemed almost impossible that the puck didn’t find the back of the Sharks’ net.
“Some of those ones have got to go in for us, and we’ve got to bear down and put those ones in,” said Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk. “You know, you can say you’re getting chances, all that, everything is great, but we’ve got to put those in.”
Only after Kane put the Sharks ahead 4-1 with his second goal of the night late in the second period did the Flames manage to pull one back, though, when T.J. Brodie fired a puck through traffic that made its way past Sharks goalkeeper Martin Jones.
There were other numerous opportunities, though, where the puck just wouldn’t go in.
Johnny Gaudreau had a gaping net to shoot at with about 6:30 left in the third, but whiffed on the shot.
At one stretch earlier in the period, Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm and Giordano all took shots with Jones out of position, but the puck just didn’t go in.
It would be hard to fault the effort, or say that the Flames didn’t give themselves a chance, but ultimately their final touch failed them and the Sharks extended their lead in the closing minutes when Hertl buried his second of the evening to make it 5-2 with 1:23 left in the game.
Now, the division lead is down to two points — although the Flames have a game in hand — and there’s a four-game road trip kicking off this weekend.
“It’s very disappointing,” Tkachuk said. “Now, they’re what, two points behind us? It would have been nice for us to get a cushion, you know, those four-point games are huge. We didn’t get it tonight, but hopefully we’ll have to get one back on the road.”
You know, you can say you’re getting chances, all that, everything is great, but we’ve got to put those in.