Offence fired up in win over Panthers
Calgary’s offence comes to life as team opens mini-homestand
Tuesday’s game was exactly what the Calgary Flames needed.
After dropping four of their past six games, including Saturday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers and Friday’s “terrible” (coach Glen Gulutzan’s words, not ours) 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Flames were due for a win and it came in the form of a 5-2 victory over the visiting Florida Panthers.
It was a minimal skid, if you could call it that. But facing a three-game homestand at the Scotiabank Saddledome and trying to continue moving up in the National Hockey League standings, a solid win — with scoring from other players not named Matthew or Mikael/ Michael — was an important step.
And as for the trio of the aforementioned Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik?
“They’ve been one of the best lines in the league all year,” Giordano said. “It’s no secret anymore. Backs and Frolly, they’ve been a good tandem defensively for a long time. Bringing Chucky in this year obviously helped. Now they’re getting production because the offence is coming now. They’re big goals that they’re scoring for our team.” No kidding. The Flames relied on backto-back goals from their most consistent and productive forward, who scored 13 seconds apart in the second period. Backlund’s first marker was a tapin. It was Calgary’s second power play goal of the night.
Gulutzan immediately put Backlund’s line back on the ice and his gut feeling paid off. Tkachuk nabbed his second assist of the game with a slick back-handed pass through his legs to a waiting Backlund in front of the Florida net.
“Sometimes, when you’ve got a little mojo going, it’s good to get them out there as much as you can,” said the Flames coach. “There’s always that thought that they can get it done again and they did.”
With those goals added to Giordano’s power play marker, which evened the score at 2-2, the Flames were cruising as they headed into the third period. Sean Monahan scored the empty-netter with over two minutes to go and that was that.
At that point, the Panthers already looked like they were wheezing in Calgary’s thin mountain air.
It took eight minutes into the second period before the visitors registered a shot on net during the frame. The Flames out-shot Florida 14-6.
“This is a big stretch for us going into the all-star break,” Tkachuk said.
It could have been 7-2 for the home side but two offside calls negated a pair of goals by Lance Bouma and Freddie Hamilton.
But it wasn’t one-sided to begin with.
Vincent Trocheck, Florida’s 23-year-old all-star centre, dominated the first period.
The game was only 3:46 when the up-and-coming star burst into Calgary’s zone on the right wing and fired a high glove side shot. Boom, 1-0 Panthers.
Almost three minutes passed but the Flames got on the board. Kris Versteeg sent a back-handed shot at the top of the circle and, with the help of a screen from Troy Brouwer, it trickled past Roberto Luongo.
But Trocheck found the back of the net again at 8:25 with an identical play and an identical wrister.
That reflected badly on Flames netminder Chad Johnson who allowed two goals on three shots.
The Nashville Predators come calling on Thursday.