Vancouver Sun

VLADAR SHINES AS FLAMES SALVAGE A POINT

Matthews tucks in overtime winner for Leafs that's worthy of the highlight reels

- KRISTEN ANDERSON kanderson@postmedia.com twitter.com/kdotanders­on

MAPLE LEAFS 2, FLAMES 1 (OT)

Good teams don't lose three in a row.

That's what Flames forward Mikael Backlund said after Thursday's 4-2 decision to the Montreal Canadiens. Sure, the game was much closer than the score indicated but who cares because it was the team's second straight `L' — hence the vow as they looked ahead to their next opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But it is performanc­es like Friday's 2-1 overtime loss at Scotiabank Arena that have got to leave the Calgary Flames feeling good about themselves, despite the end result.

And, of course, feel good about the performanc­e of their backup netminder Dan Vladar who was an absolute brick wall for the visitors. More impressive­ly was the fact it was only his third start for this team, playing in a hostile building with the Flames (7-3-4) trying to stop a losing skid.

“It says a lot about him for sticking with it,” noted Flames defenceman Oliver Kylington. “Any time he's been in the net, he's been unreal for us and has been making key saves. I wanted him to get this win (Friday) because he deserved it.”

The goal that will end up on the highlight reels — in Toronto, anyway — will be Auston Matthews' game winner at 2:32 of overtime, which saw the Leafs superstar walk into the offensive zone and go underneath Vladar's pads.

But what the folks back home should remember is the way Vladar stood tall in the extra frame prior to that shot, stopping Matthews twice on a breakaway and making a glove save on Mitch Marner shortly after.

Or how about the entire game? Kylington, for one, couldn't say enough nice things about Vladar and playing in front of him. But he was also upset at himself, for spoiling the friendly Czech goalie's night with when he had tried to flip the puck out of Calgary's zone in the third period.

Instead, he coughed it up to Alex Kerfoot who sent it over to William Nylander for a one-timer which was tipped by Ondrej Kase.

It was an unfortunat­e chain of events, really, as Kylington had broke open the scoring at 4:55 of the third period with a beautiful goal set up by Johnny Gaudreau.

At the TV timeout, Kylington made sure to chat with Vladar about his gaffe.

“I just told him he was having a heck of a game and told him I was sorry,” Kylington said. “He said, `Don't be sorry, you just scored for us.' But I just want us to win. I thought he was playing unbelievab­le tonight. He was saving us on a lot of chances. I just wanted him to hear it from me.”

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