Streaking Flames find one extra play to beat Avalanche in overtime

A hot Calgary team came to Colorado for the first time this season on the heels of a tough OT loss at home to Montreal – a loss which effectively broke their 11-game home-win streak. That’s a feeling the Avalanche can relate to after having their 18 game home-win streak broken by none other than the Arizona Coyotes in early February.

Both teams entered the contest with similar frustrations. With the Avs loss to Arizona on Thursday and the Flames to the Canadiens – two division leaders sought to find the path back to winning again.

Calgary is among the top 10 in the league in wins on the road with a 17-10-2 record. (Now, 18-10-2).

The first period was slightly tilted in favor of the Flames, but it was pretty evenly matched. The Flames outshot the Avs 14-9, though it was Avs who scored first just 42 seconds into the game’s start.

The Valeri Nichushkin effect was felt immediately – Gabe Landeskog came from behind the net in time to find Nichushkin’s rebound and tuck it away earning his 30th goal and 55th point of the season. 

Landeskog is pacing himself to exceed his career high points in a way that I certainly didn’t expect this season. He’s chasing a 75-point season from 2018. Similarly, Nichushkin is 3 points from matching his career high points total with 26 games remaining to certainly surpass that.

Not two minutes later, the Avs took a delay of game and the Flames scored 5 seconds into their powerplay opportunity. Matthew Tkachuk found Elias Lindholm who beat Darcy Kuemper with a one-timer to bring the game 1-1.

It’s a tough blow to the Avs PK, but they found redemption soon after in a late-period powerplay goal scored by Andre Burakovsky who now has 6 points in the last 5 games. Alex Newhook and Nichuskin earned assists on the play. (An assist from number 18 on the goal scored at 18:18? I like that.)

With just seconds left in the period, Elias Lindholm made it a tie game again – he retrieved the puck along the boards and sent it in from the slot.

The second period got a little hairier and a little scarier. For the first time this game, the Avs would play at a deficit when an Erik Gudbranson shot hit the post and in at 1:27 into the period. Darcy Kuemper is pulled and Pavel Francouz came in as relief at 18:33. A usually level-headed Kuemper was visibly upset, slamming his stick as he exited.

“I thought a couple of those were gifts based on our five guys on the ice,” Bednar said of the three goals. “They executed and scored on it, but I didn’t feel like Darcy was real sharp. So at that point, we need a little bit of something [a fresh start],” he explained.

A bit later, some more emotions spilled over onto the ice. Right off the faceoff, Kurtis MacDermid and Milan Lucic dropped the gloves. It was a tilt between two heavy weights – neither went down easy though it appeared MacDermid had an edge here. 

Earlier, it seemed MacDermid would be the scratch tonight. There was some confusion, but after hearing Bednar describe the intense physicality of this tough Calgary team at morning skate, he also specifically addressed some of the benefits of having MacDermid in the lineup citing “security”. 

While not a knock at Darren Helm, the actual scratch tonight, it appears Bednar is rotating through his bottom six to further his blending in an effort to force more production from the second half of a struggling forward group.

He confirmed as much in the postgame. “I’d like to see those guys contribute a little bit more,” he mentioned of the bottom six,  “but I’ve liked Helm’s game here recently. He brings things to our lineup that I like – the experience. I wanted to have [MacDermid] in the lineup tonight. So that’s one [reason]. And then, I also wanted to see how some of our other guys would play against a team like Calgary, and I know what I’m getting out of Helmer on a on a nightly basis.”

Fortunately, just a short while later Nathan MacKinnon tied it at the midway point in the second. Cale Makar worked this play with confident puck retrieval in his own end to create a transition the other way. Makar sent it up ice to Nazem Kadri who sent it to MacKinnon – he doesn’t even appear to look and scored with a quick release.

The Avalanche closed in on the shot differential 21-25 at the end of the second.

The third period revealed how closely these teams match up. In blocks, takeaways, shots, and hits the teams were almost identical in numbers. Throughout the game Calgary dominated at the faceoff circle. For those who know how I feel about The Process, it’s one of several items a team can count on to tilt games in their favor and the Flames won 62% of their faceoff battles.

Things remain tied up in the third and overtime hockey began.

Depending on your perspective, the villain of the night (or who I’d consider a first star of the game – Elias Lindholm) worked Mikko Rantanen off the puck in 3v3 OT hockey against a team where there was just no room for error.

Lindholm sent a long lead pass to Johnny Gaudreau who took it on the breakaway and fired a shot right over the pad but just under the glove of Pavel Francouz.

Despite the overall outcome, the Avs walked away with a point and a solid night from Francouz who made 21 saves on 22 shots in relief.

It’s [a] real good test for our team. It’s what our team needs. It needs to feel like that was a playoff-type hockey game,” Bednar said of the match, looking forward and toward the next two games to be played against Calgary who will be returning for another game next Sunday after the Avs wrap up their road trip out East and another later this month.

TAKEAWAYS

• Kurtis MacDermid logged 2:02 of ice time. To hear Bednar describe the benefit of having MacDermid in the lineup for select games (re: highly physical) alongside this is truly interesting to me – especially when you consider the load management that has to happen to accommodate the absence of someone else. Tonight it was Helm and other times it has been Tyson Jost or Aube-Kubel as the healthy scratch. It seems a marginal amount of time to have much impact, but I’ve seen this decision play out enough times to know that I’m not the one who needs to be convinced here. It doesn’t matter if I feel comfortable with MacDermid in the lineup. What matters is the comfort he clearly brings the team even in just two minutes of action. It’s not something that can be measured in my opinion, so it’s hard to qualify the exact difference he makes, but we’ll continue to see this storyline throughout this season by every account.
• Separate from MacDermid, there is a real need for the bottom-six to find inspiration wherever possible to begin producing. Bednar said, “There’s things that I want to see and Joe [Sakic] wants to see from guys in our lineup – to see how they answer to a team like Calgary.” This was in response to a question I asked specifically about the third and fourth lines. It coincided with his comments about knowing what to expect from Darren Helm, so there’s still plenty of opportunity to impress or disappoint here independent of what MacDermid is called upon to do in a given night.