ANAHEIM — This was, for the Calgary Flames, a game that went according to script.
They chased the first period, crushed by all measures of possessions stats. But their goaltender, Karri Ramo on this night, kept the score within a goal, and as the game progressed, the Flames slowly began to find some traction.
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Honestly, if you’ve watched Calgary this season, you’ve seen the movie 35 times before. Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau could see what was unfolding, and he was getting nervous.
“Once you have that many shots and you only have a 1-0 lead, I was a little afraid,” said Boudreau, whose club had 20 first period shots but just a slim 1-0 lead at the intermission. “I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination, was this a dominant effort by us.
“Ramo was better than good.”
As the tumblers began to fall into place for Calgary, you could visualize it: a Flames team that’s been dismissed by the entire hockey world, walking out of the Honda Centre after being outshot and outplayed through six periods, scoring that late game-winner to level the series at 1-1.
But something happened on the way to the fairy tale ending. Calgary opened the third period on the power play, but couldn’t score. Then they pressed, had plenty of good looks, and as yet another Calgary defenceman stepped into the high slot with a blast, it seemed inevitable that one of those pucks would evade Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen.
Alas, the most important part of the script — the moment when the momentum changing goal dents the opposition’s twine — never happened on Sunday in Anaheim. In fact, it went the other way, and Hampus Lindholm’s seeing eye shot at 11:15 of the third period somehow wove its way through two bodies and into the top corner past Ramo, quelling the comeback and sending Calgary home in defeat.
“If we just get one,” lamented Flames winger David Jones, “it’s a different finish to the game.”
In fact, Calgary did get just one. One goal in 120 minutes of hockey here, which is the singular statistic that many will take away from the first six periods of this series, a span of hockey from which we would score four periods to the Ducks, one to Calgary, and the other a draw.
“We’re a really good team,” understated Andersen. “Even though nights like tonight when we didn’t score as much as we wanted, we just kept coming. There are not a lot of teams that can handle that.”
Truly the NHL playoffs have not yet provided Anaheim with a team that can handle them on a given night, and as such the Ducks are now 6-0 in the post-season. Calgary has now lost … wait for it … their last 21 decisions here at the Honda Centre — both playoff and regular season —their last victory coming in April of 2006.
This one was one shot away. But really, the 3-0 result is worth no more or less than the 6-1 count Anaheim won Game 1 by.
“I felt in the last 30 minutes, we regained our composure, our structure,” said Bob Hartley, whose team positively hemorrhaged odd-man chances in the opening period. “The first 20 minutes we looked like 20 strangers out there. Like we’d just met for the first time. They were all over us.”
Speaking of meeting, the agreed upon conclusion in the Calgary dressing room was that the Flames will need to meet more often — on Andersen’s doorstep. “We’re too much one-and-done,” said Jones. “We take a shot and we don’t get the rebound.”
“We’ve got to get to the net more,” agreed defenceman Deryk Engelland. “He’s giving up some rebounds, and we have no one there to bang them home. We’re playing a little bit too much on the outside.”
After Game 1, we wondered: How much of a 6-1 rout was due to Calgary having played poorly? And how much should be chalked up to the Ducks simply being the bigger, better and far more experienced playoff team than Calgary?
Game 2 taught us that there aren’t five goals between these clubs on a given night, if Calgary gets stand-on-your-head goaltending, and plays something more reminiscent of the game that got them here.
Perhaps, however, the formula has to change.
Remember — the Ducks were an even better third period club than Calgary in the regular season. So maybe that old hang around, hang around script has to change for Calgary, when this series resumes at the Saddledome for games Tuesday and Friday.
“After the first, we got some power plays, made them take some penalties. Got some hits,” said Ramo. “We got a little bit back to our own game, but to win on the road you have to do more. It’s not a 30 minute effort that cuts it in these games.”
Or in any games at this time of year, frankly.
Calgary’s season is down to two games now. They need to invent a new script, or it’s going to be the same old story.
