CALGARY — Opening the night with a goal and a fight on the same shift, Ryan Lomberg admitted it didn’t take long for the Gordie Howe hat trick to come to mind.
“Probably right when my gloves came off,” laughed the Calgary Flames winger of a first period snipe-and-swipe Saturday against Vegas that whipped the Saddledome into a frenzy.
“Ask my linemates. I told them, ‘if I give it to you in the o-zone I don’t want it back, shoot it.’”
Although the fourth-line fan favourite was unable to snag an assist, he did earn the team’s player-of-the-game jacket, a Hockey Night in Canada towel and the growing admiration of teammates and a fanbase that cherish the ever-beaming mighty mite.
With the Flames up 2-1 against a Vegas team they rarely beat, a hyped-up Christmas crowd got an added jolt when Lomberg was sent in alone by Connor Zary for a finish he threaded right through Akira Schmid for his second of the season.
Distracted momentarily by the merriment that followed, Lomberg then got right back to business by negotiating the tussle with Golden Knights defenceman Jeremy Lauzon as the puck was being dropped at centre.
Game on.
“He hit Matty (Coronato) pretty good a couple shifts before and I was planning on going and asking him (to fight), but it just worked out that I scored before I got a chance to ask him,” said Lomberg, whose first of the season came two nights earlier in front of his dad.
“I asked him right after and he said yes. Obviously in his position they’re down 3-1, it was a good opportunity for them, and for me just sticking up for our boys.”
Despite losing his footing early, Lomberg fought his way back up and continued an entertaining battle with the 6-foot-3, 225-pounder that got the patrons on their feet, punctuating the team’s 3-1 lead with another crowd pleasing punchup.
“He’s a big boy, he kind of pushed me over and I lost my balance,” said Lomberg, sporting dried blood on the bridge of his nose following a few stitches.
“I asked him to let me up and he did. Nobody wants to see that, so he was more than happy to let me up and continue the fight.”
Asked if he’s ever scored and fought on the same shift, Lomberg smiled.
“I don’t remember one, but that’s a great stat right there, I’ll take it,” he said.
“It was quite a play by Zar. Initially I was getting all the speed to block out the defenceman so he couldn’t catch up to him, but it looked like Zar was at the end of the shift, so he head-manned the puck and I almost lost it. I don’t know if he ever would have looked at me the same way if I lost it. But luckily I put it in and I owe him something for sure.”
Lomberg’s energy was infectious, spurring on a team that saw: Mikael Backlund score twice, Devin Cooley try to score on an empty net, Zary and MacKenzie Weegar pick up three helpers apiece and Jonathan Huberdeau score an empty netter while sliding on the seat of his pants.
But it was The Shift that had everyone talking.
“Is that what we’re calling it, The Shift,” smiled Weegar, who picked up his 200th career assist.
“It was a great shift.
“It was a good play by Zar putting the puck on the right guy’s stick in that situation. Lombo did the right thing.
“I thought Lauzon and Klapper (Adam Klapka) were kind of talking all night and I think Lombo was all fired up after that. He’s great for the locker room and for just life in general — he’s the man.
“I would have liked him to come back and get an assist and then we could have called it the Gordie Howe Shift.”
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