Flames halt losing skid, down Coyotes
Elliott backstops Calgary victory despite giving up two soft goals
All eyes were on Calgary Flames netminder Brian Elliott who, they hoped, was bound to change their fortunes.
After losing two straight following a six-game win streak, the Flames were willing to change things up in Monday’s clash against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena.
Sure, the 31-year-old goalie — starting his first game since Nov. 28 against the New York Islanders — allowed a blooper goal at the 5:12 mark of the first period, likely incensing fans back home (as did a second blooper in the third period).
As for his teammates? At that point, they hadn’t registered a shot on goal.
Luckily there are no pictures on a scoresheet.
This one, a 4-2 win over the Coyotes in front of a Flames-supporting crowd of Snowbirds, was ugly.
After a sleepy first period in which the Flames were outshot 11-0 at one point, they picked things up and started to battle. Literally.
All but one of Calgary’s goals were power play markers. Two of them came in the final frame.
The game-winner, scored by Kris Versteeg, came with 7:35 left to play.
But their discipline nearly cost them, killing their momentum with each team taking four penalties in the third period.
At the 4:07 mark of the third frame, Dougie Hamilton tripped Shane Doan. Then, at 6:27, Sean Monahan cross-checked Josh Jooris in the kidneys.
The Flames had just finished killing off the back-to-back infractions when Elliott’s second gaffe ended up in the back of the net.
This one was a lazy toss on net by former Hitmen forward Ryan White that trickled through Elliott’s stick side. The Flames challenged the goal, believing White was offside, but the game-tying marker counted.
It was a tough one to swallow as Calgary had protected a 2-1 lead established 20 seconds into the third period when Troy Brouwer scored on the power play.
Fortunately Versteeg came to the rescue, while Elliott redeemed himself on a five-on-three penalty kill with seven minutes remaining. He stopped 24 of 26 shots on the night.
TJ Brodie scored an empty-netter with a minute to go.
Back to the first period. The Flames’ first shot came with 8:15 left in the opening 20 minutes.
There were too many turnovers, too many passes directed at skates, and too many shots blocked by the Coyotes. And Elliott’s gaffe said it all.
He’d gone behind the net to play the puck and tried to rim it around the boards. But, instead, the puck went off Josh Jooris and squirted out to Christian Dvorak, who had a wide-open net to shoot at.
Elliott recovered to make an excellent save on Shane Doan with 42.6 seconds left in the first period.
The second period was much better for Calgary but it’s also when the rough stuff started.
At the 7:23 mark of the second period, Versteeg absorbed a high elbow from Coyotes winger Jamie McGinn, which resulted in an Arizona penalty.
The Flames subsequently counted a game-tying tally.
The man-advantage marker came just 47 seconds into the power play when Hamilton made the patient play instead of the easy one. Instead of shooting from the faceoff dot to Arizona goalie Mike Smith’s left, he hit Mikael Backlund with a pass and the pivot redirected it to extend the Flames’ power play scoring streak to eight games.
Calgary couldn’t score on their first power play attempt, which came in the first period with Alex Goligoski off for cross-checking (on Versteeg). But they didn’t do much in the opening frame.
After the Coyotes’ penalty expired, Gaudreau’s short-side shot on Smith was the only memorable attempt of the period.
The Flames face the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, the second-last game before the Christmas break.