Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Calgary Flames headed to Winnipeg to face the Jets on Friday evening in a rematch of their tightly-contested battle in Calgary on Monday night. This game was a little more high-scoring, but unfortunately for the Flames it had the same result as Monday’s.
The Flames’ losing streak was extended to eight games (0-7-1) by way of a 5-3 loss to the Jets.
The rundown
The Flames opened the scoring in the first period with the man advantage. Nazem Kadri drew a tripping minor. On the resulting power play, Kadri blasted a one-timer feed from Morgan Frost past Eric Comrie to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Nazem Kadri scores his first goal of the season! It comes on the power play! 1-0 Calgary
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
The Flames had some good looks for the remainder of the period, but couldn’t get more pucks past Comrie.
First period shots were 9-5 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 11-9 Flames and high-dangers were 4-2 Flames.
The game got away from the Flames a bit in the early second period.
During a stretch of four-on-four play, Josh Morrissey juked around MacKenzie Weegar in the neutral zone, leading to a two-on-one with Kyle Connor against Jake Bean. Connor converted Morrissey’s pass past Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.
Kyle Connor ties this game up. Not sure what MacKenzie Weegar was thinking on this play.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
Just over a minute later, the Jets grabbed the lead. Off a face-off win in the Flames’ zone, Morrissey swung low in the zone and threw the puck towards the front of the net. Jonathan Toews, with his skates in the blue paint, redirected the puck past Wolf to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.
Jonathan Toews scores his 2nd goal of the season.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
The Flames challenged for goaltender interference. The league’s verdict? The goal stood: “Video review confirmed the Referee’s call on the ice that the presence of Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews in the crease did not hinder Dustin Wolf’s ability to play his position prior to Toews’ goal.”
The Flames killed off the delay-of-game minor stemming from the unsuccessful challenge, but Kevin Bahl took a holding minor right after that penalty expired. On the resulting power play, Gabe Vilardi back-handed the puck over Wolf’s outstretched pad to give the Jets a 3-1 lead.
Winnipeg scores on the power play. It’s 3-1 Jets
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
A little later, the Flames got one back. Sam Honzek battled for the puck in the neutral zone and came away with it. He passed to Blake Coleman, who spun and found Mikael Backlund in the slot. Backlund deked and fired the puck past Comrie to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 3-2.
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Blake Coleman sets up Mikael Backlund for a beautiful goal! The captain gets Calgary back in this game!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
But the Jets got their two-goal back on another power play. With Rasmus Andersson in the box, Vilardi made a nifty backhand pass to set up Alex Iafallo for a one-timer that beat Wolf to give the Jets a 4-2 lead.
Winnipeg scores their 2nd power play goal of the game.
4-2 Jets
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
Second period shots were 16-9 Jets. 5v5 scoring chances were 7-6 Flames and high-dangers were 4-2 Flames.
The Flames inched within one midway through the third period. After killing off a penalty, Backlund had the puck in the corner of the Jets zone and found Coleman in the slot. Coleman beat Comrie to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 4-3.
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Mikael Backlund makes an unreal pass to find Blake Coleman alone in the slot and he buries it!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
But the Flames could not get any closer. Vladislav Namestnikov added an empty-netter with Wolf on the bench for the extra attacker to give the Jets a 5-3 victory.
Third period shots were 15-11 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 8-3 Flames and high-dangers were 6-2 Flames.
Why the Flames lost
Five-on-five, the Flames were pretty good against a tuckered Jets team that played the prior evening. They out-shot them 23-17, out-chanced them 26-18 and had a high-danger chance edge of 14-6. That should be enough to win you a lot of games.
But the Flames had an utter lack of discipline. The Jets had eight power plays and scored twice. The Flames also twice took penalties that wiped out significant amounts of power play time. When you can’t get out of your own way, it’s tough to win hockey games
Red Warrior
Let’s jointly give it to the Honzek-Backlund-Coleman line, who were consistently noticeable and chipped in a pair of goals.
Turning point
The Flames led this game until early in the second period. Then the Flames gave up three goals to the Jets over a span of 4:31. The Jets grabbed the lead and the Flames were chasing for the balance of the contest.
This and that
Adam Klapka fought Logan Stanley in the first period. It was one of the biggest fights in Flames history, in terms of the combined height of the combatants.
We got two giants dropping the gloves!
6’8 Adam Klapka
6’7 Logan Stanley
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
Zayne Parekh was moved up to the first power play unit for this contest. They scored a power play goal and he registered the second assist, so that’s a positive.
Sam Honzek’s assist on Backlund’s goal was his first NHL point.
After Burner
Join Mike Gould and Kent Wilson right after the game for After Burner!
Up next
The Flames (1-7-1) are headed home. They host the New York Rangers on Sunday night.
This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi