Instant Reaction: Flames drop rematch to Jets, run losing streak to eight games

The Flames had some good looks for the remainder of the period, but couldn’t get more pucks past Comrie.

First period shots were 9-5 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 11-9 Flames and high-dangers were 4-2 Flames.

The game got away from the Flames a bit in the early second period.

During a stretch of four-on-four play, Josh Morrissey juked around MacKenzie Weegar in the neutral zone, leading to a two-on-one with Kyle Connor against Jake Bean. Connor converted Morrissey’s pass past Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.

Just over a minute later, the Jets grabbed the lead. Off a face-off win in the Flames’ zone, Morrissey swung low in the zone and threw the puck towards the front of the net. Jonathan Toews, with his skates in the blue paint, redirected the puck past Wolf to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.

The Flames challenged for goaltender interference. The league’s verdict? The goal stood: “Video review confirmed the Referee’s call on the ice that the presence of Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews in the crease did not hinder Dustin Wolf’s ability to play his position prior to Toews’ goal.”

The Flames killed off the delay-of-game minor stemming from the unsuccessful challenge, but Kevin Bahl took a holding minor right after that penalty expired. On the resulting power play, Gabe Vilardi back-handed the puck over Wolf’s outstretched pad to give the Jets a 3-1 lead.

A little later, the Flames got one back. Sam Honzek battled for the puck in the neutral zone and came away with it. He passed to Blake Coleman, who spun and found Mikael Backlund in the slot. Backlund deked and fired the puck past Comrie to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 3-2.

But the Jets got their two-goal back on another power play. With Rasmus Andersson in the box, Vilardi made a nifty backhand pass to set up Alex Iafallo for a one-timer that beat Wolf to give the Jets a 4-2 lead.

Second period shots were 16-9 Jets. 5v5 scoring chances were 7-6 Flames and high-dangers were 4-2 Flames.

The Flames inched within one midway through the third period. After killing off a penalty, Backlund had the puck in the corner of the Jets zone and found Coleman in the slot. Coleman beat Comrie to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 4-3.

But the Flames could not get any closer. Vladislav Namestnikov added an empty-netter with Wolf on the bench for the extra attacker to give the Jets a 5-3 victory.

Third period shots were 15-11 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 8-3 Flames and high-dangers were 6-2 Flames.

Why the Flames lost

Five-on-five, the Flames were pretty good against a tuckered Jets team that played the prior evening. They out-shot them 23-17, out-chanced them 26-18 and had a high-danger chance edge of 14-6. That should be enough to win you a lot of games.

But the Flames had an utter lack of discipline. The Jets had eight power plays and scored twice. The Flames also twice took penalties that wiped out significant amounts of power play time. When you can’t get out of your own way, it’s tough to win hockey games

Red Warrior

Let’s jointly give it to the Honzek-Backlund-Coleman line, who were consistently noticeable and chipped in a pair of goals.

Turning point

The Flames led this game until early in the second period. Then the Flames gave up three goals to the Jets over a span of 4:31. The Jets grabbed the lead and the Flames were chasing for the balance of the contest.

This and that

Adam Klapka fought Logan Stanley in the first period. It was one of the biggest fights in Flames history, in terms of the combined height of the combatants.

Zayne Parekh was moved up to the first power play unit for this contest. They scored a power play goal and he registered the second assist, so that’s a positive.

After Burner

Join Mike Gould and Kent Wilson right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames (1-7-1) are headed home. They host the New York Rangers on Sunday night.