Flames top Avalanche in OT
The official game recap Calgary Flames vs Colorado Avalanche.Bob Hartley has career win No. 400. He just had to wait a little longer for it than he may have liked.
Sean Monahan scored the game-winner 1:47 into overtime, and Karri Ramo made 26 saves to allow the Calgary Flames to rally for a 4-3 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.
It was the NHL-leading sixth time the Flames have come back to win a game when trailing after two periods. It also extended Calgary’s winning streak to four games.
With two more Thursday, the Flames have scored 39 third-period goals, tops in the NHL.
Hartley’s 400th win came against the team with which he earned the most. He had 193 victories with Colorado from 1998-2003. Hartley also earned 136 with the Atlanta Thrashers. The win Thursday was Hartley’s 71st as Flames coach.
The game marked the second return to Saddledome for Jarome Iginla, who played 1,219 games in 16 seasons for the Flames (1996-2013) and is the Calgary’s all-time leader in games, goals (525) and points (1,095). Iginla has scored 268 of his 564 NHL goals and 570 of his 1,182 career points at Saddledome.
Monahan corralled his own rebound on the doorstep near Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov and lifted it into the virtually empty net to win it for the Flames.
Trailing 2-1 entering the third, Curtis Glencross scored at 1:14 to tie the game. Monahan forced a turnover by Tyson Barrie before David Jones jumped on the loose puck and spotted Glencross, who fired his fifth goal past Varlamov from the slot.
Alex Tanguay, who played for Hartley in both Calgary and Colorado, put the Avalanche back on top at 14:14.
Taking a pass off his skate in the neutral zone, Tanguay stepped around Flames defenseman Kris Russell and outwaited Ramo before lifting the puck into an empty net to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead.
But Dennis Wideman’s second goal of the game, 10th of the season, tied the game with 1:17 remaining to force overtime.
The Flames managed to manufacture the two best scoring chances in an uneventful first.
Three minutes into the game and with some pressure in the Avalanche end, Josh Jooris tipped Jiri Hudler’s point shot from just in front of Varlamov, but the puck hit off the post. With a little less than three minutes remaining in the period, Paul Byron spotted Michael Ferland slipping through the slot, but the rookie couldn’t beat Varlamov with his redirect.
Wideman put the Flames up 1-0 with his ninth goal 2:20 into the second period.
Daniel Briere thought he tied the game 1:29 later, but video review determined that the Colorado forward used his left hand to bat the puck into the Calgary net.
The Avalanche did tie it 1-1 at 13:23 of the second.
Matt Duchene knocked Wideman’s centering pass to Ryan O’Reilly, springing the pair on a 2-on-1 before O’Reilly returned the puck to Duchene, who beat Ramo for his ninth goal.
Zach Redmond put Colorado up 2-1 58 seconds later. On the ensuing faceoff after an icing, Redmond worked the puck out of the corner and threw the puck into a crowd; it hit Nick Holden in front of Ramo and rolled over the goal line. With an assist on the play, Michael Sgarbossa earned his first career NHL point.
The Flames pressed in the final minutes of the second to find the equalizer, but Varlamov, playing his first game after sitting out six with a groin injury, stood tall.
Ferland bounced the puck off the back of the net to elude Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson before feeding Mark Giordano at the point, but Giordano’s shot pinballed between Varlamov’s pads and stayed out. A shift later, Jooris spotted Hudler off the rush, but Varlamov handled Hudler’s slap shot too.
-- by Aaron Vickers for NHL.com --
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05/12/2014 - 06:31
