Avalanche comeback burns Flames at Dome
Penalty kill unit tallies twice, but Calgary loses in shootout to Avs
Two nights earlier, Freddie Hamilton played the co-star in a feelgood family story — siblings skating side-by-side at the NHL level.
With all due respect to that warm-and-fuzzy angle, the Calgary Flames call-up is now hell-bent on being more than just ‘Dougie’s brother.’
His short-handed strike in Friday’s 4-3 shootout loss the Colorado Avalanche at the Saddledome is a good way to start.
“For me, that was already last game,” Freddie Hamilton said after Friday’s morning skate. “The media built up the brother thing and obviously that was really special for us and for our family. But for me, it was about trying to make a good first impression and trying to play my game right away. The brother thing was just a bonus.”
Friday marked his second impression.
The 24-year-old forward marked the occasion with his first tally in Flames silks — finishing off a feed from left-winger Lance Bouma for Calgary’s second of two shorthanded snipes in a 30-second span in the middle stanza.
“They had a great shift right before that — a great goal — and we just tried to keep the momentum going with a good PK,” Freddie Hamilton said. “Luckily, we got a chance and Boums made a great pass. That was a huge part of the game and felt awesome, but it would have felt a lot sweeter if we got the win.”
The end result wasn’t what he was hoping for — with a dandy deke in the shootout, Avalanche winger Mikkel Boedker made sure of that — but Friday was still a special night for the Hamiltons.
For Freddie, who now has a pair of goals on his NHL resume — one for the Avalanche during a fiveweek stint in the Mile High City last season and one against his former mates.
For Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, Doug and Lynn, who were in the Saddledome seats to witness it.
And for 22-year-old Dougie, who was thrilled to see Freddie find the back of the net just two days after being summoned from the AHL’s Stockton Heat.
“It’s awesome. I think he deserves it,” Dougie Hamilton said. “That’s his old team — he played there last year, scored his first goal with them and it’s cool to score his first as a Flame against them now. I was pretty excited on the bench watching.”
Matt Stajan and captain Mark Giordano also scored for the Flames, who collected nine points during a season-high six-game homestand (3-1-2) but couldn’t finish the job Friday.
Defencemen Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and centre Carl Soderberg replied in regulation for the Avalanche, while Boedker had the only successful attempt in the shootout.
Flames forwards Joe Colborne and Johnny Gaudreau both lost their handle on the puck in the skills competition, and Sean Monahan couldn’t score to extend it.
“A real gutsy effort,” praised Flames head coach Bob Hartley. “At the end, Gio was diving in front of shots, Boums was diving in front of shots. I really liked our energy. I felt that this homestand, we played some very good games. I liked what I saw from our guys.”
Especially on that second-period penalty-kill.
In theory, Deryk Engelland’s delay-of-game penalty early in the second should have provided a golden opportunity for the visitors to break a 1-1 tie, but the Flames — saddled for almost the entire season with the NHL’s worst penaltykill percentage — flipped that script with back-to-back shorties.
Josh Jooris had a couple of options to consider on a three-onone rush — Bouma was bee-lining for the blue paint, while Giordano joined as the trailer — and eventually fed the captain for a top-shelf shot from the slot.
With that scoring announcement still echoing in the Saddledome, Bouma spied Freddie Hamilton — as he banged his stick on the ice, it was tough to miss him — for a onetimer from close-range.
The Flames, though, couldn’t hang on to their two-goal lead after their short-handed splurge.
The Avs swiped the momentum back when Barrie’s shot glanced off Giordano near the midway mark of the second, then Soderberg scored the equalizer during a goalmouth scramble just before the halfway point of the third.
In the end, the squad that needed the two more found a way to secure them. With the shootout victory, the Avs now have a three-point lead on the Minnesota Wild in the race for the final wild card entry in the NHL’s Western Conference.
“Give them credit — they’re a desperate team and that was a hard-fought game,” Giordano said.
ICE CHIPS: Flames D TJ Brodie returned to action after missing three consecutive contests due to an upper-body ailment. With an assist on Stajan’s marker, Brodie equalled his career-high with 41 points this season … Friday was a milestone night for Jokipakka, who was suiting up for his 100th NHL contest.