The Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 5-2, winning
another do-or-die game and live to fight another day.
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
1) Sharks’ energy just fizzled out
You remember the last Sharks-Flames post-game takeaway where we talked about how San Jose came alive in the third period after a low-oomph
opening two periods?
Well, the opposite happened on Sunday: the Sharks came bursting
out of the gate with an Expected Goal value of 1.5, which was even more than
Calgary’s 0.7. That doesn’t matter though because the Flames led 2-1 at first
intermission.
However, going back to San Jose, the Sharks never reached
that level of passion of energy in the game again. They had an Expected Goal value of 1.32 combined for both second and third periods.
2)
Offense has been good in some ways, not in
others
The Flames scored five goals on an Expected Goal value of
3.78. That is 1.22 goals above expected.
Third-line wing Yegor Sharangovich’s two goals at an
Expected Goal value of 0.88 made him deserving of the First-Star award.
The power play situation has been the same, unfortunately. The
Flames went 0-for-2, and could’ve used the second power play opportunity to get
the go-ahead goal in the second period.
3)
Dustin Wolf
Wolf had a great game this time. With an Expected Goal
Against value of 2.81, he gave up only two. A save percentage of 93.3 looks
good on the stat sheet as well.
With the Flames getting two valuable points in regulation,
all eyes will be on Minnesota’s (95 pts) and St. Louis’ (94 pts) final regular season games against Anaheim and Utah respectively on Tuesday.
St. Louis CANNOT get a regulation win. If they do,
Calgary is out.
If the Blues lose, get an overtime loss (95 pts), or
overtime victory (96 pts), then Calgary has to beat or equal St. Louis in
whatever points they’ve put up. If they are equal in points, Calgary has to
make sure they have more than 31 regulation wins (most regulation wins is the
tie-breaker)
For Minnesota, it’s simple: win and you’re in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
If the Wild don’t win, Calgary can try and catch up to overtake them in points.
Calgary’s next win-or-go-home contest will be against the
Vegas Golden Knights, also on Tuesday at 7 MT/9 ET from Calgary.
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