To say the odds were stacked against the Calgary Flames in Vegas Sunday is like suggesting Justin Trudeau has a bit of a public relations issue right now.
Less than 20 hours after a gritty win in San Jose, the Flames were tasked with playing in a rink they’ve rarely won in, against the NHL’s hottest team.
A tough task for any team, let alone a Flames bunch with just five road wins this season.
Apparently someone forgot to tell Dan Vladar this one was a foregone conclusion, as the Flames netminder became a formidable obstacle in the way of Vegas’ sixth straight win.
Piecing together one of the team’s strongest goaltending displays of the season, Vladar made 34 saves in a game he somehow kept scoreless until late in the second period.
Alas, he proved to be human, surrendering a Brett Howden deflection with four minutes left in the second period, followed by a Victor Olofsson power-play blast late in the third, en route to a 3-0 loss.
“I thought he was our best player tonight,” said Ryan Huska, whose club gave up an empty netter on a night in which they were outshot 37-31.
“He made some saves and he gave us a chance to win.”
Takeaways from the Flames’ league-leading 31st outing scoring three goals or less:
It’s not unusual to depart Sin City with regret, lamenting perceived missed opportunities.
This trip was no different for the Flames, who have won just twice in 13 games in Nevada.
Late in the first period of a scoreless game, Howden’s high-stick split the upper lip of Jonathan Huberdeau, opening the door for the visitors, who had a 68-second 5-on-3 as part of their four-minute man advantage.
Alas, a power-play unit that has been one of the league’s hottest the last six weeks fell short.
“They scored on their power-play, we didn’t score on ours,” Huska told Flames TV following an admirable effort from his club.
“Those are situations where you have to grab hold of it and you have to find a way to score.”
They didn’t, going 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
“The 5-on-3 was crucial for our team,” Mackenzie Weegar told reporters.
“Especially on a back-to-back, it’s opportunities like that you want to capitalize on.”
It cost the Flames the game.
“Your success rate goes way down after you have a 5-on-3 for a certain amount of time and don’t score,” said Connor Zary.
“You’ve got to bear down.”
The Golden Knights (15-3-0 at home this year) went 1-for-4 on the power play, dropping the Flames’ penalty kill efficiency on the road to 69 per cent, which is the worst in the league.
Coronato in the mix
Matt Coronato continues to be one of the most noticeable Flames of late, putting himself in position for several good scoring chances Sunday.
He had a great chance to open the scoring in the first period when he grabbed his own rebound and forced Samsonov to make one of his better saves on a night that saw him stop all 31 shots thrown his way.
Continuing to mesh well with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, his trio accounted for 16 of the Flames shots, which included five from the hard-shooting Harvard star.
“We just weren’t able to find the offence that we needed tonight, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort at all,” said Huska, whose team had a glorious chance to tie it with six minutes left late when Zary was stopped in close with a defender draped all over him.
No team in the NHL has a worse record in the NHL over the last two years in the second half of back-to-back games, with the club now sitting at 2-9-1.
Huska tried to inject some fresh legs into the lineup by putting Andrei Kuzmenko and Daniil Miromanov back in, and taking out Walker Duehr and Joel Hanley.
Kuzmenko, a frequent press box staple of late, started on the fourth line but was later moved up with an eye on trying to spark some offence.
The lines at the start of the game:
Huberdeau-Kadri-Pospisil
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Sharangovich-Zary-Pelletier
Lomberg-Rooney-Kuzmenko
Bahl-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Bean-Pachal
