CALGARY – You wondered what the Calgary Flames would do for an encore.
You pondered the possibilities after the lads built confidence and momentum with their first third-period comeback win of the season Friday in Vancouver.
On Sunday, they did it again.
Down a goal after two, with the season on the line, they found a way to come out on top of another dramatic, 5-4 victory over Anaheim that gives them even more belief their playoff dreams aren’t just of the pipe variety.
It also gave them their first four-game winning streak of the season, and helped them stay within two points of the Winnipeg Jets team they’re chasing with five games left.
Their schedule is easier than the Jets, and the two will face off against one another Wednesday in Manitoba.
This is getting good.
“It’s huge,” said Milan Lucic, who tied the game 4-4 six minutes into the third period with a top shelf snipe off his left wing.
“Being able to come back against a team like Vancouver, which is probably one of the best teams right now, gave us some confidence to go out there and do it again here tonight.
“We know how Winnipeg won, and we needed to do our part.
“Tonight we get a big win to stay in it.”
And they did it with an unlikely cast of characters, including Michael Stone who scored the game-winner after returning to the lineup after missing 20 games with a foot injury.
“It’s just nice to come back in and contribute,” smiled the popular defenceman, who was mobbed on the bench by a jubilant bunch that had outshot the Ducks 13-4 in the third.
“When you get the love from the guys, it’s nice.”
Nice when you finally get bounces too.
No one is going to suggest the Flames are in the perilous position they’re in because of puck luck.
You reap what you sow.
But when your club leads the league in one-goal losses, while simultaneously sitting second with 77 shots off the iron, it sure seems poetic when a game-winning point blast like Stone’s bounces in off the post, as opposed to off it.
“Ya, there’s been a lot of those,” smiled Stone, when asked if it feels like those shots have generally bounced the wrong way for the Flames this year.
“Not for me,” he added, pausing for dramatic effect.
“Mine either get blocked or miss the net.”
Some much-needed levity in a room known around the league for its weightiness of late.
No one in Calgary was smiling after a first period in which Jacob Markstrom was beaten on the first shot, and down 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Darryl Sutter decided to start Dan Vladar in the second.
He said it was, “just like changing the lines,” as his team was in search of some jump.
It worked, with the Flames scoring 33 seconds later.
Goals by Andrew Mangiapane, Nikita Zadorov and Nick Ritchie in the first eight minutes injected life back into a suddenly raucous Saddledome.
Silence came one minute later, as Frank Vatrano tied it 3-3, before Scott Harrington put the rebuilding visitors up by one, setting the stage for a tense third.
“Every game is do or die and feels like a game 7, so everybody knows there’s no time for negative energies – just go out there and play the way we can,” said Lucic, whose seventh goal of the season was by far his best and most important.
“I think all five goals today were snipes, so it’s nice to see it go that way after three or four posts today, and after, what, 80-plus posts and out?
“It’s good to see some bounces go our way.”
One of those bounces included a painful shot block by MacKenzie Weegar that quickly led to Lucic’s tying marker.
“That’s what we need right now,” said Stone, whose walking boot was removed less than three weeks ago.
“It’s that time of year you put your body on the line.
“Whatever it takes to get the job done.”
With all but three Flames hitting the net in a game they outshot the visitors 41-22, there weren’t many passengers.
With points in 11 of 14 games, this team is really starting to believe in itself.
“Well, it’s about time we’ve found it,” said Stone, whose club hosts bottom-feeding Chicago Tuesday.
“It’s the right time of the year to do it.
“It would be better if we were in a different position, but it’s good we’re stringing some wins together.”
