Net gains give Sharks the edge
Flames duo couldn’t keep up with stellar Jones as San Jose claims a 5-2 victory
Call it a Pacific Division playoff preview.
After all, the buzz from mid-September — right about the time the Erik Karlsson was dealt out of Ottawa — was that the road to the Pacific was definitely going through San Jose.
And the Calgary Flames have been red-hot most of the NHL season, thanks in large part to the stellar goaltending from ‘Big Save Dave’ Rittich.
But Thursday’s battle of Pacific titans didn’t give us a full preview of things to come should the division titans, now separated by only two points after a 5-2 victory by the San Jose Sharks, meet in the post-season.
Sure, the Flames, for the most part, were full marks in the loss.
It’s just that they didn’t get the usual stellar goaltending from Rittich.
Two first-period miscues by Rittich — one on a shot by Evander Kane that squeaked ever-so-slowly through his pads, and another moments later when he rushed out to clear a puck only to hit the onrushing Brent Burns who slammed it into the open cage — dramatically changed the tone of the game.
“Unlucky (on the first) — I saw it at last second,” Rittich said. “But it hit my stick, my blocker and my heel and went in.”
“(The second one) just happened what happened,” said Rittich of the Burns goal. “He faked me.”
Just 22 seconds later, after Mike Smith entered in relief of a shaky Rittich and allowed the first shot he faced on net — a goal that wasn’t really his fault.
From there, Smith was, in large part, the reason why the Flames worked themselves back in the game, despite allowing Kane to pounce on a rebound to drive the Sharks up 4-1 late in the second period — again a goal that wasn’t really his fault.
“Tomorrow is a new day,” Rittich said. “I’m going to get some sleep and be ready for next game and next practice.”
The way Rittich has evolved this season to become the Flames’ No. 1 goalie — buoyed by a 2.87 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage prior to Thursday’s meltdown — there seems little doubt he’ll be able to shake off the rare disappointment against the Sharks.
But ‘Big Save Dave’ will need to be up to snuff — and then some — should the two teams meet up in a Pacific playoff series.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Martin Jones was busy being up to snuff for the Sharks, with the Flames manufacturing plenty of offence on the night.
“I felt good. I thought that was a pretty gutsy win for us,” said Jones. “I thought I made a couple saves after the first goal that were important and we kind of got going after that. After that we scored some timely goals and made some big defensive plays at key times.”
Jones was simply magnificent, creating many highlights, including in the second period on a swift Johnny Gaudreau wraparound attempt that the goalie stuffed. Two more huge saves saved the win in the third — one during a third-period Flames power play when he stabbed his stick back on a puck threatening to cross the line that Gaudreau didn’t get enough wood on, and the other when Noah Hanifin cruised by the Sharks defence and tried to slip it by him.
“I thought that wraparound stop on Gaudreau was probably his best save of the night,” Kane said of his goalie. “He played really well. He was great on the penalty kill. They had a lot of traffic and bodies in front of our crease, and he did a good job of standing tall.
“So another big reason why we came out with a win.”
In the first frame, Jones survived a power-play flurry by the Flames — with a little help from teammates — that saw chaos nearly contribute to a man-advantage marker.
Also in the first, after Jones got beat on a Mark Giordano shot that was deflected by Mark Jankowski, he stopped wicked, quick wrist-shots by both Elias Lindholm and Garnet Hathaway.
He stopped an onrushing Hathaway later in the second on a drive to the net.
And then in the third period, Jones stared down another barrage of power-play shots — with help again from teammates, especially shot-blocker Burns — and thanked the iron behind him for a Lindholm shot that whistled by him.
“Sometimes those find a way to bounce in, and (Thursday night) they didn’t,” Jones said. “We did a good job in front of the net. There were a couple of hectic scrambles around the net, but we had guys really selling out doing a great job blocking shots when we needed them and stepping up and making some big plays for us.”
All totalled, the Flames fired 38 shots at the Sharks net — and hit some iron along the way — but Jones was more than up to the task.
Jones came into the affair having won 10 of his last 12 starts, but he’s recorded just a 3.13 GAA and a .891 save percentage during that run.
But Thursday, he backstopped the Stanley Cup contending Sharks with authority.
And Jones, of course, knows playoff hockey — something that Rittich will have to learn on the fly once the post-season opens in April.