NASHVILLE – Full marks to the local country artist who might one day be able to encapsulate the heartache involved with a loss like this.
Someone ought to at least try, as the Calgary Flames had a hard time describing the type of pain Nashville artists generally equate with a breakup, a dog running away or a scratch on their truck.
One tenth of a second away from a gritty road win over a Predators team nipping at their heels, the Flames somehow left Music City with Achy Breaky hearts Thursday.
"It’s a tough one to swallow," said Mikael Backlund, who had one of the better games of his season ruined by Mikael Granlund’s game-tying goal with 0.1 seconds left in regulation, followed by his overtime winner 80 seconds later.
"We were so close to winning and they came back. Frustrating we let that last one in. But we’ll take the point and move forward. Five out of six points so far on this trip is pretty good – we’ve played some good teams so far."
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Numb was the best way to describe the Flames afterwards, following another excellent road showing, albeit with an ending befitting a hurtin’ tune.
Despite taking the biggest kick in the teeth imaginable at this time of the year, no one kicked garbage cans or laced their post-game comments with profanities.
They did their best to take the dramatic setback in stride.
It couldn’t have been easy, as it appeared Andrew Mangiapane had scored the game winner with 43 seconds left, completing a Gretzky-esque pass from Backlund to go up 3-2.
Alas, a wild, goalmouth scramble in the dying seconds somehow found its way in with one-tenth of a second left to send the crowd at Bridgestone Arena into a frenzy.
"We’re a little sour right now," said Mangiapane.
"We have to close that out. But as a whole, I think we played a pretty solid game. We have to learn from it and move on. We’re a little sad with that one there. We still have five out of six points right now on this road-trip, so we have to look at it as a whole. We’re playing good hockey right now and we just have to keep doing that."
Indeed, let the record show the Calgary Flames deserved a better fate Thursday.
They had every reason to be happy with everything but the result.
"Well absolutely," agreed interim coach Geoff Ward, whose club out-hit, out-blocked, out-shot and out-chanced a surging Predators club that entered the game just two points back of the Flames for a wild card spot.
"You have 42 seconds left, and you have the lead. They came back with a good push obviously. They’re playing for their lives right now, too. They’re the same as us — they’re fighting for those last two spots. And their players found ways to make plays to get it to overtime and then to win it in overtime. But for us, we were right there. One second. We needed one second. But tonight we didn’t get it."
Backlund’s ninth goal in as many games put the Flames up 2-1 early in the second, thanks to a fortuitous bounce off the shin of Mattias Ekholm.
With the help of David Rittich and a solid forecheck, the Flames stymied the Predators for a full period until a Roman Josi shot squeezed under Rittich’s arm to tie it with five minutes left.
An intense game that featured plenty of playoff-type scrums, physicality and effort seemed to be over when Backlund toe-dragged his way through a pair of defenders before passing it back to Mangiapane for a last-minute snipe.
Cue Granlund with a response someone in town is bound to dub the Music City Miracle, as tired as it may sound.
It marked just the fourth time in NHL history the same player tied a game in the final ten seconds before winning it in extra time.
"There were a ton of good things, but it just stings right now, losing like that," said captain Mark Giordano, who returned to the lineup after missing 10 games with a hamstring injury.
"There were some opportunities throughout the game to get even more of a lead. But they stuck in there and found a way to tie it. It was a whole range of emotions. It was a tough way to lose, there’s no doubt about that. The puck seemed at the end like it was bouncing all around our net and they whacked it home — I think there was point-one on the clock or whatever it was. It’s a tough, tough point to lose, but we did a lot of good things. We’ll move on to the next one.”
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The Flames finish their road trip against the Lightning and Panthers this weekend, and may have to do so without Noah Hanifin who missed the last 15 minutes of the first period with an apparent lower-body injury. He returned in the second and finished the game, but will be evaluated Friday when the team practices in Tampa.
Until then the coach admitted the pain of their latest setback will linger.
"It sticks with us and then it’s over," said Ward.
"So think about it tonight and then we’ll put it to bed tomorrow at practice and then it’s on to Tampa. We can’t dwell on it. We have to make sure that we’re getting ready for the next couple of hockey games, because they’re going to be big. We’ve done a good job — we have five of six points on the trip so far. We have to be excited about that. We played an awful lot of good hockey tonight. We have to take that into the game against Tampa and just take what we need to learn out of the inches that we’re talking about."
