Flames fall short of another comeback attempt and see their two-game winning streak snuffed at the Saddledome
The comebacks were a great story, but the Calgary Flames are not going to keep erasing deficits every night.
It caught up to them in Saturday’s 4-3 home loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
In falling behind just over two minutes into the clash and trailing 2-0 before the nine-minute mark, the Flames had too much of a hill to climb to earn their first three-game winning streak of the season.
There are positives, a pair of power-play goals and an exciting late push, but it wasn’t enough and the Flames fall back below the NHL’s .500 mark at 10-11-3.
Here are three takeaways from the clash in which former Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov was credited with an assist — he was originally credited with an empty netter but insisted Elias Pettersson touched the puck — in his Canucks debut.
No moral victories
To their credit, the Flames appeared more annoyed with their performance than anything.
“We weren’t good enough to win the game,” said Elias Lindholm, who scored a pair of goals on his 29th birthday.
“I think overall, they were more desperate than us. Obviously in the first, they were stronger on pucks and won more battles and were better just overall.”
“They were the better team with the 50-50 battles,” defenceman MacKenzie Weegar added.
Embracing the hatred of losing is a good thing.
Special teams performance
Calgary netted two power-play goals, one by Lindholm and from Mikael Backlund, whose first-period tally snapped a 0-for-17 slump.
Plus, the Flames boasted a perfect penalty kill which snuffed four Vancouver power plays, including a 61-second five-on-three.
Normally, that’s a recipe for success. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
That said, Calgary was blanked during a pair of second-period opportunities when trailing 2-1, which would have made a huge differnce.
“We scored on the power play which is a positive, for sure,” coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought it had moments, and it had moments where it looked like the power play of old. But scoring two goals allows them to feel good about what they’re supposed to do. And I thought our penalty kill did a good job. That five-on-three could have been the difference in the game.”
Start ’em up
How the Flames are falling behind so often is becoming something of a tragic comedy. For the sixth consecutive game and 12th time in 14 outings, Calgary surrendered the game’s first goal.
For the 13th time in those 14 games, they trailed at any point of the game.
For the 10th time in the last 13 outings, they had a deficit going into the third period
As well as the Flames have played when trailing — their record is 8-4-2 in those 14 games — the losses will pile up if those trends continue.
“It’s frustrating and it’s hard,” Lindholm said. “Overall, I think we’ve done a good job throughout the season and especially lately, but we have to be more hungry in the first (period) and more hungry to get the lead in the beginning. And once we get it, I think we’re a comfortable and mature group to play with the lead. But we just gotta get it, right?”