Three takeaways: Red-hot Flames down Wild to wrap-up perfect homestand
Perfect. Four wins from four games. Eight points out of eight. As good as it gets. The Calgary Flames’ (12-6-3) four-game homestand couldn’t have gone any better. Not after Saturday’s afternoon’s matinee win against a very good opponent in the Minnesota Wild (13-4-3) – albeit one that was without superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov. They didn’t make it easy on themselves against the Wild, squandering a late-third-period two-goal lead and requiring the shootout to secure the two points with a 4-3 victory. A win is a win, though, and the Flames finished the afternoon sitting in first place in the Pacific Division, although the Vegas Golden Knights could jump them with a Saturday night win over the Montreal Canadiens. Nobody expected the Flames to be anywhere near that position in the standings at this point in the season. “It gives us a lot of confidence, we’re in them every night,” said Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson. “We should have probably won in regulation but it is the way it is and we still ended up getting two points. We’re pretty comfortable in close games and ended up getting another one. Really good homestand here.” Here’s three takeaways from Saturday’s game: POWERING UP Only a week ago, the Flames power-play was a major source of concern. Times have changed. The Flames scored twice with the man-advantage on Saturday afternoon, with Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil lighting the lamp. Kevin Rooney also scored at even-strength. Suddenly, a team that had the third-worst power-play percentage (13.5%) in the NHL at the beginning of the week has scored four times when playing five-on-four in their last three games. At game-end on Saturday, they had jumped 12 places in the league-wide power-play rankings. They’ve now got the 18th-best conversion rate, at 18.3%. “We tried to put different people on both unites to create a little competition there,” Huska explained when asked about what’s changed. “I think that competition’s been good, but I also think they’ve just done a much better job moving the puck quickly and they’re not overcomplicating right now. They’re just fast with their puck movement and they’re putting pucks to the net, as well.” SLUMP-BREAKER When Pospisil scored on the power-play in the second-period, it was his first goal since the Flames’ season opener. It’s been a tough season at times for the second-year winger. He was moved to centre and it didn’t go particularly well and after taking a few badly-timed penalties he seemed to dial back the physical side of his game that made him so effective last year. But Pospisil has looked a little more like himself on this homestand. He’s been comfortable on the puck and has had a few good opportunities around the net. And on Saturday, he was finally rewarded with a goal. “It feels great,” Pospisil said. “There was kind of frustration the last couple games, I had lots of chances and they didn’t end up in the net, it feels great that I could help the team that way.” Pospisil had camped himself in front of the net for his power-play goal and was able to guide a slick pass from Nazem Kadri past Filip Gustavsson and into the back of the Wild net. It was nothing fancy, but it was a big goal to break a 1-1 deadlock. “I think when Marty is skating and physical the offence kind of follows him,” Huska said. “I think if he really focuses on how he has to play every night he’s going to find goals like that, especially in that spot on the power-play. “He’s one guy we know is always going to go to the net and get in the goaltender’s eyes a lot, but if he can get a little bit of rhythm with the guys on the outside on the power-play, those are the types of goals he can score because he has that skill-set.” SOLID IN NET Andersson scored the shootout-winner, but there was no patented fan-staredown after his goal. “If we won after my shootout (goal), there’d probably be a staredown,” Andersson explained. “We still needed a save, though.” Dan Vladar happened to be walking by the media scrum as Andersson spoke. “You don’t trust me?” he asked with a smile. That’s certainly not the case. While Dustin Wolf’s stellar play has been a big story this week and he’s started three straight games, Vladar has been as reliable as anyone could ask him to be this season and was very good again on Saturday afternoon. He stopped 20-of-23 shots and four-of-five Wild attempts in the shootout. “I thought he played well,” Huska said. “He didn’t have a tonne of work tonight but he made some saves that I felt kept the momentum on our side at times and when we needed the saves the most, he made them tonight. To me, that’s what matters.” As a side note, Saturday marked Vladar’s second win in six shootouts. “Even in practices, I feel very comfortable in shootouts. But just in games, it wasn’t going my way,” Vladar said. “I don’t know if the guys were just having a good pre-scout on me or something, I really have no idea, but I’m super confident in shootouts and I actually enjoy them. Hopefully, you’re never going to go to a shootout again but if you do, I’m going to keep doing the same thing. As I said, I owed those guys and I’m happy we got a W, for sure.” daustin@postmedia.com www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9
