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The cardiac kids made a triumphant return last night as the Flames came back in spectacular fashion to beat the reigning Stanley Cup Champions 4-3 in overtime. The victory came on the back of a natural hat-trick from Johnny Hockey, and a game winning drive to the net by Captain Gio.
With the Kings up 2-0 after the first, last night’s game felt just so many of the recent losses. The Flames were skating well, and playing hard, but they just didn’t seem to be catching any bounces. The Kings extended their lead to 3 in the second period for their second powerplay goal of the night and the game felt like it was over.
Apparently, the Kings thought so too.
As the second period wound down, something awesome happened. Bob Hartley moved Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Jiri Hudler. The line immediately went to work, generating scoring chances, and making some magic happen. On the next shift Paul Byron seemed to get under the skin of virtually every King on the ice. He got run about 3 times, and bounced back up every single time, even getting into a shoving/crosschecking battle with Drew Doughty along the boards.
Byron didn’t register a point last night, but his fire and effort were a key element in the momentum swing that got things going for the Flames in the latter half of the second period. The guys on the bench got fired up watching their 5’7… spark plug out there trading shots with Drew Doughty in a game where the Kings were up 3-0 and they came out with a chip on their shoulder.
Now, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Brandon Bollig… but last night he actually played his role pretty well. In the shift following Byron’s tussle with Doughty, Bollig came out like a wrecking ball (cue the Miley Cyrus music) and absolutely devastated every Kings player he could catch. As his shift came to an end he managed to level Anze Kopitar in front of the Kings bench and drew Jeff Carter into a retaliation penalty to put his team on the powerplay.
During the ensuing powerplay, Johnny Gaudreau blasted a Dennis Wideman rebound past a sprawling Jonathan Quick, and momentum was firmly on Calgary’s side heading into the dressing room for the second intermission, despite the fact that the visitors were still down by 2 goals.
Early in the year, this was the exact kind of situation where as a Flames fan, you’d almost come to expect the miraculous comeback… with the way things have gone in the month of December though, I couldn’t help but to feel like 2 goals might prove to be too many for a squad that has struggled to score of late.
The third period was one of missed chances on both sides of the ice. The Kings opened the frame by nearly capitalizing on a T.J. Brodie giveaway, but Hiller was lucky enough to get a little help from his best friend, Mr. Post.
Then it was Brandon Bollig (yes, that same Brandon Bollig…) who nearly scored his first goal of the year, ringing a shot off the cross bar.
Mason Raymond had a glorious chance, but couldn’t find the empty net as he was falling to the ice… and then as the period wound down the Flames once again pulled the goalie with plenty of time left on the clock.
Giordano carried the puck into the Kings zone and found Monahan, who dished the puck quickly to a streaking Johnny Gaudreau. Gaudreau held the puck, circled all the way around the net, and displayed incredible patience working his way back into the slot before firing a wrister past Quick for his second of the night.
The equalizer came only minutes later, again with Hiller on the bench, as Gaudreau’s centering pass careened off the skate of Drew Doughty and into the yawning cage behind a very frustrated Jonathan Quick.
The overtime period was some of the most exciting hockey that I’ve seen all season with great chances and huge saves at both ends of the ice.
After 4 minutes of heart-attack inducing hockey, it was Mark Giordano that put it away on a single-handed drive through 2 Kings defenders capped by a power-move at the net to beat Quick and win the game for the Flames.
It felt like November all over again.
The boys can celebrate Christmas with their families without the ugly weight of a lengthy losing streak clouding their thoughts, and hopefully they’ll carry the positivity forward with them into the contest against Edmonton on Saturday.
I don’t know what Johnny asked Santa for this year… but I’m pretty sure he’s happy with his first NHL Hat-trick and a much needed win heading into the break.
Thanks for reading!