The Calgary Flames. Will. Not. Quit.
They beat the San Jose Sharks in a come-from-behind 3-2 victory on Monday night in the shark tank.
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
1) Comeback from an atrocious 40 minutes
We’re always told “it’s not how you start, but it’s how you finish.”
Well, the Flames may have gotten that memo.
In the first period, San Jose outshot Calgary 18 to 8. The final shot for the home-side resulted in the ice-breaking goal.
By the end of the second period, the Sharks had blocked shooting lanes on the Flames to a point that San Jose players had registered 12 blocks, while Calgary had eight.
The tide turned in the third period where in a span of 7:18 minutes, the Flames scored three unanswered goals and never trailed again. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
2) Special teams showed up
I mentioned in my preview article that after the 0-for-4 showing against Vegas, the Flames power play had to make an emphatic comeback.
Well… nothing better than scoring the go-ahead goal off the man-advantage.
The penalty kill was as great as expected going 2-for-3, although understandably, the 4 vs 6 situation at the end was never going to end well for the Flames.
3) Dustin Wolf proves he is the REAL Calder Trophy favorite
We sound like a broken record at this point, but when Wolf earns his second consecutive First-Star award in a row, can you blame us? He was pelted with 31 shots, including four coming from current rookie of the year favorite Macklin Celebrini. The first-overall pick from last year had an Expected Goal value of 0.49 (highest on the team) against Wolf, but was ultimately stonewalled by the California kid.
The Flames gathered two valuable points in their pursuit of snatching the second wild-card spot from the Minnesota Wild, who had widened the gap between themselves and Flames after their win on Sunday.
The two teams will get a chance to prove who is really deserving of a playoff spot when they face off on Friday.
But before then, the Calgary Flames will stay in sunny California to play the Anaheim Ducks at 10:00 MDT/8:00 EDT on Wednesday.