PITTSBURGH – Over the last couple seasons in Calgary, there was always a sense that no matter what happened in the game, it wasn’t officially over until Darryl Sutter spoke.
Win or lose, fans, players and media types wondered what the skipper would have to say to punctuate the evening.
While Ryan Huska may not be as colourful, ornery or as cutting as Sutter, there is plenty of reason to believe the well-spoken Flames coach will give you the straight goods.
Asked if his club let Saturday’s game at PPG Paints Arena get away, he paused ever so slightly.
“Whether we let it get away, or we kind of gave it to them, however you want to put it, it happened,” he said.
Up 1-0 on the road, against a team that played a night earlier, the Flames felt pretty darn good about themselves.
Jacob Markstrom carried over the spectacular netminding from the opening game, stopping every shot he faced, while all four lines carried five-on-five play by dominating the wall with a work ethic befitting the fresher team.
When Matt Coronato scored his first NHL goal with a memorable power play snipe in the final two minutes of the second, it was hard to tell who was happier — the 21-year-old rookie or the three jubilant veterans mobbing him in the corner.
And then it happened.
The Flames got superstarred, as several core members of one of this era’s great franchises taught the Flames a pretty tough lesson:
Don’t blink.
Eighteen seconds into the third period, Sidney Crosby forced a turnover that finished with a Bryan Rust bank-shot from behind the net that went off Markstrom’s back.
A mere 23 seconds later, a Flames turnover at centre ice saw Reilly Smith finish off a sweet pass from Evgeni Malkin.
Before the six-minute mark, Crosby won a draw back to Kris Letang who found Jake Guentzel in the slot to put the hosts up 3-1 — a score Malkin improved on later in the period when he capitalized on another giveaway at the blue line.
And just like that, a 1-0 lead entering the third turned into a 5-2 spanking to open a five-game eastern road swing.
“The hard part is we had a good first two periods,” said Huska.
“We played a good, solid road game to start with and then you let momentum get away from you.
“A few faceoff reads that were not there tonight, so it’s a tough one for us, for sure.
“The work ethic was there for the most part – much improved from our game against Winnipeg, but if you want to take a next step it’s those little, small details in the game and they sure were (crucial) tonight.”
The third-period lapse overshadowed another great start by Markstrom and a moment Coronato had hoped to soak in for much longer than an intermission.
“It feels good… but I think it’s kind of hard to think about the way we came out and played in the third,” said Coronato in a subdued room.
“But it was a great play by Lindy and it was good to get it.”
There’s certainly a sense Flames fans will be seeing plenty more sublime finishes from Coronato as the kid with the world-class shot roofed this one from below the faceoff circle where he separated himself from the play to find “quiet ice” before taking a nifty feed from Lindholm.
“This guy had a tremendous training camp, worked really hard this summer and gets rewarded with his first goal tonight,” said Jonathan Huberdeau, who bounced one in off a skate late in the evening for his first of the season.
“It would have been nice to get the win for him.
“We can’t lay off against a team like that.”
“A couple mental mistakes we had in the third and they took advantage of that. I thought overall our work ethic was great tonight — we knew they were on a back-to-back and wanted to push them — but some mistakes turned the puck into our net.”
NOTES:
Noah Hanifin played his 600th game, making the 26-year-old the 10th-youngest defenceman to hit the milestone … 13 of the next 19 Flames games are on the road, and the remaining four on this eastern jaunt are all against teams that missed the playoffs last year, including Washington who they play Monday … Nice touch by the Penguins and their fans who honoured Chris Snow during a TV timeout. They donated the proceeds from Saturday’s 50/50 sales to ALS research on Snow’s behalf … The only lineup change from opening night saw Dennis Gilbert replace Jordan Oesterle.