Another valiant effort.
Another devastating blow.
Despite an impressive comeback, the Calgary Flames lost ground in their fight for the west’s final playoff berth Saturday with a 3-2 shootout loss in Vancouver.
Yes, another squandered opportunity after 60 minutes of hockey, pushing their record in extended contests to 7-16.
One of the stories of their season, which is once again on the brink.
“It’s tough, obviously, with the situation we’re in,” said Rasmus Andersson, whose club fell behind 2-0 in the opening period.
“Sloppy first period.
“Then second and third I think we were the better team.
“We had some long ozone shifts, and created some looks, but (Thatcher) Demko was kind of standing on his head.
“We probably deserved to get that extra point.
“It’s frustrating, but we move on.”
Demko’s heroics were the difference in a game in which the Canucks netminder stopped all 18 Flames shots in the second period.
The Flames finally solved him when Elias Lindholm scored 38 seconds into the third period, followed by a Nazem Kadri finish six minutes later.
Game on.
Lindholm, who was terrific with a career-tying eight shots on goal and all sorts of quality chances, was later denied by Demko’s magical glove on a 2-on-1.
“The last two periods we were dominating,” said Lindholm.
“I think we could have put this game away earlier than what happened out there.
“Tough loss.
“Regroup and go again Monday (against Nashville) and Wednesday (against San Jose) and anything can happen.
“It’s going to be a huge game, Nashville is fighting too (just two points back of Calgary).
“Sour taste from this one. It’s going to sting a little tonight.”
The loss prevented the Flames from keeping pace with the eighth-place Winnipeg Jets, who blanked Nashville earlier in the day and now sit one point up on Calgary with a game in hand.
The Jets also own the tiebreaker, meaning the Flames will likely need to win their two remaining games, while hoping the Jets don’t win more than one of their remaining three against San Jose, Minnesota and Colorado.
After a slow start, the final three minutes of overtime was a wild, back and forth affair the desperate Flames couldn’t put away.
Summing up the team’s fortunes was a golden chance for Dillon Dube that ended with the forward’s stick snapping as he attempted his shot, spilling him to the ice.
The best of Demko’s 41 saves was a late pad stop on a Kadri redirect in tight.
“Fought back – couldn’t ask much more than that,” said Darryl Sutter, who said the Canucks “came out flying” and praised his team for not folding after a Jonathan Huberdeau giveaway led to an Elias Pettersson shorthanded goal that put the hosts up 2-0 after 13 minutes.
“I’d say we dominated the second half of the game.
“We couldn’t solve Demko.”
Sutter figured “four or five” goals could have been scored in overtime if not for great goaltending by Demko and Jacob Markstrom, who finished with 31 saves.
Sutter chose Huberdeau, Kadri and Tyler Toffoli for the shootout, none of whom could answer Kuzmenko’s opening snipe.
