FLAMES ‘STICK WITH IT’ FOR OVERTIME VICTORY
For second straight night, team keeps composure in face of botched calls
CALGARY 2, BUFFALO 1 (OT)
The camera panned to Johnny Gaudreau behind the net early in the second period, visibly upset at the referee’s decision to blow the whistle a little too prematurely.
A few seconds later, when the National Hockey League officials reviewed the play and waved off what would have been a gametying goal, the camera again panned to the frustrated Calgary Flames winger on the bench.
But instead of letting the botched call distract him and the rest of the team — which was the second referee gaffe in two nights as they faced an early whistle during Monday’s 3-1 win over the Maple Leafs that could have led to a two-on-none scoring chance — they continued to work toward a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“Frustration builds in your game sometimes,” Gaudreau said. “Especially after the disallowed goal, it was tough to see that one taken away. But it takes a full 60 minutes to win and found a way to tie it up in the 59th minute.
“You have to stick with it at times.”
With 55.3 seconds left in the third period, Matthew Tkachuk stuck with it and tipped Elias Lindholm’s blast from the left faceoff circle and it sailed over Sabres netminder Carter Hutton’s left shoulder to tie the game.
They stuck with it for the first two minutes of overtime, when Tkachuk was in the penalty box for tripping.
Backup netminder David Rittich stuck with it as the Flames faced a tough four-on-three situation in the extra frame.
Mark Giordano stuck with it, battling Rasmus Ristolainen to successfully free the puck in the defensive zone. Sean Monahan stuck with it and was able to spot Gaudreau sneaking through the neutral zone, sending him a pass.
Then, with the game on Gaudreau’s stick — again — he slowed down the play to let Giordano and Monahan catch up before a two-on-one with the Flames’ captain eventually led to Gaudreau’s game-winner.
Everyone “stuck with it” on this night.
“To be honest, I was just trying to take away the drop pass and not giving that one-timer from (Jack) Eichel,” said Giordano with a chuckle, referring to the Sabres star who had the home team’s only goal until that point. “We know what kind of shot he has. It was a bit of a scramble. Monny did a good job to get that up to Johnny. That’s all I had left in the tank was that one length. “It worked out well.”
It was the second straight night that the Flames (7-5-1) were rewarded for 60-minute efforts.
They picked up four points and two back-to-back victories that saw botched referee calls, late goals, timely goals and special teams adversity. And after last Thursday’s 9-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice, they’re now 2-0-1.
Gaudreau lauded Giordano’s big defensive play on the gamewinning marker.
“We had like a three-on-two coming towards us. Especially me being on defence, you don’t want that too much,” Gaudreau said with a chuckle. “He did a great job of breaking that play up. Monny came back and found a way get the guys up the ice and Gio just slid it right back to me for a tap-in.
“It was a nice play.” Calgary’s power play still needs work, going 0-for-5 and hardly looking dangerous apart from a few chances from their first unit. Far too many casual breakouts. Too many icings. Not enough shots and certainly not enough dangerous chances. And, the biggie, no goals.
Their fifth man advantage was, by far, their most dangerous one after a Zach Bogosian charging penalty on Dillon Dube, retribution for an earlier run at 2018 first-overall pick Rasmus Dahlin.
Monahan had the best chance of the night on their fifth man advantage, but was denied by Hutton in the slot.
Hutton made 36 stops against the Flames, including a slick paddle save on Lindholm early in the second period. Rittich stopped 28-of-29 attempts for his third win of the year.
“I really liked our game tonight,” Giordano said. “We obviously stuck with it. We were down by one pretty much the whole game and didn’t take any unnecessary risks to give them a second one.
“There were a lot of moments in the game where we just stuck withit.”
Eichel’s goal was an example of that as the Sabres captain scored with 4:30 left in the opening frame.
Mark Jankowski accidentally flipped the puck off James Neal in the neutral zone, leading to a turnover directly to the Sabres’ top line. Jason Pominville sent a patient pass over to Eichel who went top shelf over Rittich’s shoulder.
The first half of the period, the Flames didn’t look as sharp as they had 24 hours earlier. Within the first five minutes, they went offside four times.
“We had some adversity in the second period but we moved on and I didn’t think we gave up as much as the game went on,” said head coach Bill Peters. “I thought we turned it over and didn’t manage the puck early in the game. We flat-out turned the puck over and it makes you look bad. Once we cleaned that part of the game up, it was good.
“I liked the composure on the bench.”
Frustration builds in your game sometimes. Especially after the disallowed goal, it was tough to see that one taken away.