CALIFORNIA REDEEMING
Flames rebound to beat Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks had been undefeated at the Honda Center.
The Calgary Flames ... well, you know what usually happens to them in Anaheim.
So, Sunday’s game was over before it started, right?
Not so fast.
Battling a red-hot John Gibson in net and warding off their own self-inflicted demons, the Flames wrapped up a quick two-game road trip with a 2-1 win.
That snaps a three-game losing streak at Anaheim. And, in case you forgot, before Calgary’s 2-0 win over the Ducks on Oct. 9, 2017, the Flames had suffered 25 straight regular season losses at 2695 East Katella Avenue.
“Playing in this division, you hear those storylines and stuff like that over the years,” said Flames netminder Cam Talbot. “You knew we had some bad omens in here, but hopefully this is the end of that.”
They hope, too, it’s the end of a string of inconsistency to start the 2019-20 National Hockey League season.
The game winner wound up being a perfectly timed two-onone pass from Matthew Tkachuk to Mikael Backlund, who onetimed it past Gibson with 8:57 elapsed in the third period.
But Talbot was also a hero, playing just his second game with the Flames and showing confidence in the later stage of the game when the Ducks poured on the pressure.
Other than a Jakob Silfverberg shot that beat him 12 seconds into the second period — the result of a sloppy faceoff win by Sean Monahan — he was nearly perfect, stopping 28-of-29 attempts from a high-flying, Dallas Eakins’ inspired Ducks team.
“He was unbelievable tonight,” Backlund said. “Kept us in it a few times and made some really big saves.”
By the way, Anaheim had been 4-0-0 at home.
The Flames, meanwhile, had lost 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday; a completely flat effort that left them questioning what kind of team they’re going to be in 2019-20.
“We have to be realistic of where we’re at,” said Flames head coach Bill Peters. “We’re still a little bit inconsistent … there are a lot of things we can do better, we’re well aware of that. The standards are pretty high and we haven’t played to those standards on a consistent basis.
“The next time out, we’ll have an opportunity to do that. But it’s every night. You’ve gotta work.”
They’ll head back to Calgary 5-4-1 for a pair of home games (Tuesday versus the Washington Capitals and Thursday against the Florida Panthers) before Saturday’s Heritage Classic at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium.
STONE SAVES THE DAY
An NHL roster is like one of those complicated spider weblike charts that are seen in true crime Netflix shows.
One thing has to happen in order for that thing to happen, but not before something else happens first.
Which was the case for Flames general manager Brad Treliving when he tried to piece together a lineup for Peters on Sunday.
Sam Bennett was injured in Saturday’s 4-1 win. As such,
Alan Quine was recalled from the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat, who had just won 4-3 at Bakersfield.
But to stay within the confines of the NHL salary cap, they needed to make a specific move. With only 11 healthy forwards in California (since Andrew Mangiapane was recovering at home in Calgary), that meant Oliver Kylington was dispatched to the AHL since the 22-year-old does not require waivers.
And that allowed Michael
Stone to enter the lineup.
And all of the above ended up to be part of the reason Calgary sealed the victory.
On a defence pairing with TJ Brodie, the former Calgary Hitmen blueliner locked and loaded a shot from the point with 4:28 remaining in the second period.
Meanwhile, Monahan had been jarring with Michael Del Zotto in front to create a screen for Gibson, which sent Stone’s shot to the back of the net, tying the game 1-1.
“It felt good to contribute — it’s been a while since I’ve done that,” Stone said. “To get in there and get rewarded was nice.”
He was unbelievable tonight. Kept us in it a few times and made some really big saves.
NOTES
Flames D Rasmus Andersson skated in his 100th NHL game on Sunday and what a way to do it — on a defence pairing with captain Mark Giordano. He eventually played with Noah Hanifin to end the game ... Just before the end of the first period, a scrum ensued around Gibson’s net. The referees had their backs turned when Ryan Getzlaf cross-checked Austin Czarnik across the front of his body and sent him flying. The hit created a bit of a ruckus, but nothing stemmed from it other than firing up Flames fans back at home.