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A few thoughts on Calgary’s crucial 5-2 win over Montreal:

1. The Flames did it again. Friday the Flames defended like mad men. They wouldn’t give the Canadiens anything in the middle of the ice and sucked the life right out of them. I thought the Habs had a little more juice last night but it was largely more of the same. Calgary gave up only six high-danger chances, and ~1.5 expected goals, at 5v5. They did a great job of keeping Montreal to mid-to-low danger shots and relied on their $6 million goaltender to make the saves he should. And, well, he did. Darryl Sutter has everyone buying in and playing selfless, defense-first hockey; and it’s working. Even in a luck-filled sport, you’re going to win more times than not when you basically cut Grade A chances out of the game for your opponent.

2. Opportunistic scoring was key. Calgary didn’t generate chances like the night before. In fact, their volume was cut in half. They dropped from 31 chances and 15 Grade A looks to 17 chances and seven Grade A chances. It didn’t matter, though, because they made the most of them. Johnny Gaudreau scored on an absolute snipe in transition. He scored again when Andrew Mangiapane hit him open in front. Brett Ritchie and Milan Lucic scored from relatively close range as well. Again, the Flames didn’t generate a ton of great looks. But they beat rookie Cayden Primeau with clinical finishing when the chances were there.

3. Gaudreau led the way. I really liked his game. He did a good job of staying within the structure of the team in the defensive zone and then exploding in transition as soon as Calgary retrieved the puck. The far-side snipe on Primeau was the highlight, of course, but there were other occasions where Gaudreau raced up ice and got the Flames setup in the offensive zone. The Flames don’t have many guys who can take the puck the length of the ice and turn defense to offense within seconds so it’s imperative Gaudreau provides that dynamic element. He did. He’s picking a good time to play some of his best hockey of the season.

4. Taxing hockey. Chris Tanev, man. The guy is a warrior. I was concerned about the Flames giving him term – I still am – because of how taxing a style he plays but he definitely has more left in the tank than he showed last season in Vancouver. He played more than 28 minutes last night due to Noah Hanifin going down; most of which came at 5v5. The Flames gave up only three Grade A looks with Tanev on the ice in ~23 minutes during that gamestate and he was in the middle of absolutely everything. He blocked six shots, took four hits, and simply wouldn’t bend. You’d think playing that many hard minutes would wear him down and have him make mistakes due to exhaustion. It was a B2B, after all. But nope! Tanev was sturdy the whole way through and played a big part in getting another much-needed two points.

5. Crazy but true. Shot attempts were 18-3 Montreal with Brett Ritchie on the ice. Chances were 8-1. And yet the Flames – Ritchie himself, in fact – scored the only goal in that time.

Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com

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