FLAMES CLIP WINGS IN OT
Elliott stymies Detroit as Calgary keeps rolling
It wasn’t pretty.
And, after their out-of-town guests scored the equalizer with just 1.8 seconds showing on the clock, it wasn’t easy either.
But it was a win — another one — and for the Calgary Flames, that’s all that matters.
With Friday’s 3- 2 overtime victory against the Detroit Red Wings at the Saddledome, the Flames stretched their current winning streak to six consecutive contests and continued to strengthen their grip on a playoff spot in the NHL’s Western Conference standings.
The Flames have now collected points in eight straight outings, with a 7- 0-1 record over that superb stretch.
The Red Wings forced overtime in the final seconds of regulation, but Flames centre Mikael Backlund scored the winner on a slapper nearly four minutes into threeon-three, one last reason for the home fans to yee-haw on Western Night at the Saddledome.
Kris Versteeg and rookie Matthew Tkachuk each provided firstperiod tallies and Brian Elliott racked up 35 saves in a stingy performance as the Flames (35-26-4) matched their longest winning spree of the season.
They also rattled off six in a row from Nov. 30-Dec. 10.
This latest heater couldn’t have come at a better time.
With the St. Louis Blues suffering a 3-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, their fifth straight loss, the Flames are suddenly seven points up on the ninth-place squad.
The Blues, it should be noted, have two games in hand.
The Red Wings put the first ink on Friday’s scoresheet, with speedy centre Darren Helm zipping a shot just inside the post from the top of the left circle.
The Flames didn’t trail for long. Just over a minute later, Versteeg evened things up with a slapper on the power play.
Andreas Athanasiou had only four seconds to get comfy in the sin bin — the amount of time necessary for Flames centre Sean Monahan to win a faceoff and push the puck back to TJ Brodie, who teed up Versteeg with a pass across the blue line.
It was Red Wings rearguard Niklas Kronwall — typically a trustworthy veteran — who provided the setup on Calgary’s go-ahead goal.
Kronwall panicked as he was pressured by Tkachuk in Detroit’s defensive zone, with the mouthguard-chomping youngster pick- ing off an ill-advised pass attempt and taking full advantage with a smooth deke to his backhand.
Elliott was the difference-maker during a snooze-worthy second period.
The hosts only fired two shots on net in the middle stanza, but their starting puck-stopper delivered 14 saves to preserve the lead.
He continued to slam the door for most of the third, but the Red Wings finally scored the equalizer in the last two seconds.
Just moments after Elliott denied Henrik Zetterberg with a terrific pad save, Tomas Tatar scored to force overtime.
Shortly before Backlund’s winner, he robbed defenceman Ryan Sproul on a blast from the blue line in the bonus session.
Next up for the Flames is Sunday’s matinee against the New York Islanders at the Saddledome (2 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).