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A few notes from Calgary vs Florida:

1) As was the case in Tampa Bay, the Flames were outplayed for extended periods. Luckily, they once again had fantastic goaltending erase a lot of their problems. David Rittich was dialled in from the word go and was the biggest reason the Flames won their sixth consecutive game. He faced a lot of shots – quality ones at that – and was there to close the door time and time again. I thought his side-to-side movement was excellent, he was never really caught out of position, and he made some really impressive sprawling stops on 2nd and 3rd opportunities to ensure the Panthers could never get level. Through five career starts, Rittich is 4-0-1 with a .942 save percentage. All five were on the road, too. The Flames have found something here.

2) I'm running out of words to describe Matthew Tkachuk. The guy is just an absolute gamer who shows up every night. He was in the right place at the right time to bang in a rebound goal early in the game and the effort he made to help set up the dagger was absolutely incredible. He's not a big brute guy by any means but when he turns his back to you, you're not taking the puck from him.

What an unbelievable effort by Matthew Tkachuk to get the puck out and then get the assist on Backlund's ENG. This kid is something special. pic.twitter.com/WrvNgro4JZ

— Mike Pfeil (@mikeFAIL) January 13, 2018

3) The Flames penalty kill did a respectable job in terms of results – the Panthers scored on one of four opportunities, which you can live with – but they gave up a *lot* of good looks as the Panthers were credited with 13 scoring chances. They'll need to clean that up.

4) Aleksander Barkov's most frequent opposition at 5v5: Mark Giordano and Dougie Hamilton. Glen Gulutzan didn't have last change, but I think he did a good job of getting his best guys out there to try and neutralize Florida's big line. Overall, the Barkov line had a strong night but chances were 5-5 when he was out there against the Flames' top pairing.

5) The following forwards logged more ice than Troy Brouwer last night: Mikael Backlund. I thought Brouwer was OK but I think I'm cool with that never happening again.

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